Amazon launches Prime shopping edition to compete with Flipkart VIP membership

Every year E-commerce space in India witnesses a phase of increased activity during the September to November period that coincides with festivals when people shop more than the rest of the year. The two biggest players in this space Amazon and Flipkart even conduct their festive sales called the ‘Great Indian Festival’ and ‘Big Billion Days’ respectively, scheduled between 8th to 15th October this year.

This year Flipkart launched a paid loyalty program for its users called Flipkart VIP priced at Rs 499, earlier Flipkart had loyalty programs like Flipkart Plus and Plus Premium which were made available to eligible users based on their spending on the platform in the duration of one year. Flipkart VIP offers benefits like 5% cashback upto 300 super coins and 5% off on purchases using Super coins, 1 day free delivery in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and 48 hour returns pick-up, a welcome gift box with goodies worth Rs 499 and additional benefits on Cleartrip, Swiggy Dineout and Sony Liv.

Now Amazon has launched its own Prime membership Shopping edition priced at Rs 399 to compete with the Flipkart VIP membership. The shopping edition of Prime offers unlimited free 1-day delivery on 40 lakh+ items, Early access to shopping events and 5% cashback on Amazon Pay ICICI credit card. This plan does not offer access to Prime Video and Prime Music. For the unaware, Amazon’s standard Prime membership priced at Rs 1499 offers free 1 and 2 day shipping on eligible products along with ad-free access to Prime Video in 4K resolution, Prime Music and Prime reading. Amazon also has a Prime lite membership priced at Rs 999 which offers free 2 day shipping on eligible products, ad-supported access to Prime video in HD resolution and does not include Prime music and Prime reading benefits.

Note: Both Flipkart VIP and Amazon Prime Shopping edition have been rolled out to select users and both platforms are looking forward to a wider rollout during the shopping festival dates.