Thoughtcataloges

Flipkart Plus is India's answer to Amazon Prime but can it truly give an edge to Flipkart? Yes and no

Flipkart will officially launch the Flipkart Plus on August 15 in India

Can Flipkart Plus be a success and take on Amazon Prime?
To become a Flipkart Plus member, customers will need to earn Plus Coins, which are basically digital coins, by shopping with Flipkart
How to become Flipkart Plus member

For Amazon India, its Prime service is one of its top weapons in the grand e-commerce fight. Amazon Prime is a service, which its Indian foe Flipkart can't match right now. When Amazon started popularising the Amazon Fulfilled service in India, Flipkart matched that Flipkart Assured. Flipkart is now gearing up to compete Prime with Flipkart Plus which the company will be launching this Independence Day in India.

The key idea behind introducing this programme -- Flipkart Plus -- is to offer a wide range of services to customers similar to what the Amazon prime gives to shoppers. This includes free and fast delivery, early access to major sale events such as Big Billion or Freedom Day, and also enhanced customer support experience. Buoyed by the recent deal with Walmart, which saw the US retail giant acquiring majority stake in Flipkart, the Indian e-retail company hopes that its Plus service will be enough to counter Prime. While in theory, it looks like a good idea, look closer and you see that the Prime and the Plus are somewhat different services. And before we take up the question of whether the Flipkart Plus can take on the Amazon Prime, which has 10 million users in India, or not, it is a good idea to look exactly what Flipkart is proposing.

What is Flipkart Plus? What are the offerings of Flipkart Plus? How much do you need to pay to be a member of Flipkart Plus? How to subscribe to Flipkart Plus?

Flipkart Plus is a benefits program which, when it launches, will come with some of the Amazon Prime-like features such as fast shipping, early access to major sales like the Big Billion Days or Big Shopping Days, priority customer care with faster response time and free delivery of products.

But the highlight factor of Flipkart Plus is that the service comes absolutely free of cost, unlike the Amazon Prime for which the customers need to pay a monthly or yearly fee. So, to subscribe to Flipkart Plus you don't need to pay a fee. All that you will need to do is earn Plus coins by shopping on Flipkart. The more you shop on Flipkart the more Plus coins you get. And the more Plus coins you get the more it will help you unlock the benefits of Flipkart Plus.

This "free" part is also something that gives the Flipkart Plus an edge because it is going to appeal to some customers, the people who want free and fast shipping but don't want the video and music streaming services and don't want to pay for it.

In comparison, unlike Flipkart Plus, customers need to pay to get access to Amazon Prime's service which was launched in India five years ago, back in June, 2013. To subscribe to Prime, customers need to pay Rs 129 per month or Rs 999 annually. Under the Amazon Prime membership, quite similar to Flipkart Plus, customers get access to services such as free next day delivery, discounted same-day delivery, and exclusive access to sales like Prime Day and more. But what makes Amazon Prime stand out is that it also gives access to its streaming services like Prime Video and Prime Music. Flipkart Plus, on the other hand, doesn't come with any of such streaming services.

Given the nature of the service, the Amazon Prime is something that is more appealing to the "connected" shoppers. These are the people who not only shop their groceries online but also stream video and music for entertainment. On the other hand, the Flipkart Plus would be useful for more regular shoppers, people who do online shopping but don't exactly live in the online world.

Before going into answering that question, it is important to note that Flipkart is yet to reveal some key details about the Flipkart Plus, like the value of the Plus coins. Flipkart will officially launch the Flipkart Plus on August 15 in India.

Considering the services that both the Flipkart Plus and Amazon Prime offer -- as far as what we know right now -- the free business strategy is what may work for Flipkart. Who doesn't like free offerings? The biggest example of the free business strategy that created a buzz in the country and became a huge success in no time is Jio. It is the free data and calling benefits that attracted most users in India to switch to Jio from their existing network. Similar may be the case with Flipkart Plus.

While the free strategy may work in Flipkart's favour, what may not is the fact that it doesn't offer any extra service like Prime does. Amazon Prime offers access to Prime Video and Prime Music streaming services, Flipkart doesn't have any such service. Considering the growing popularity of Prime Video and Music among the masses in the country, chances are that Flipkart may stumble (at least initially) to compete with Amazon in this regards until it decides to partner with Netflix or Hotstar or any other streaming platforms in the near future. As of now, there're no such words about it.

In addition, to attract more and more customers Flipkart has also partnered with several shopping, food and travel brands where customers can use the Plus coins to get discounts and other attractive offers.

To become a Flipkart Plus member, customers will need to earn Plus Coins, which are basically digital coins, by shopping with Flipkart. Although the e-commerce giant is yet to reveal the value of the coins some reports claim that to get access to Flipkart Plus, customers will need to have a minimum of 50 coins. Flipkart will reportedly offer one Plus coin every time a consumer spends Rs 250. The value of the coins, however, is yet to be officially revealed by the e-commerce giant. After subscribing to Flipkart Plus, customers will be able to get access to all the benefits that come with the programme.

Ahead of the official launch of the service, Flipkart is reportedly testing the Flipkart Plus in beta. It has rolled out the service in the latest version of the Flipkart app, but that's only for select users. The final version of the Flipkart Plus will be rolled out on August 15.