Indians are buying things online if Billion dollar sales or Diwali sales are an indication.  And now E-commerce companies are offering paid membership to Get your orders delivered faster. This article talks about  Amazon Prime membership in India, Flipkart First and Snapdeal Gold.

Amazon Prime in India

What is Amazon Prime membership?

Why pay Rs.100 for One-Day Delivery every time you need an item quickly? As a Prime member, get unlimited FREE One-Day and Two-Day Delivery on eligible items from India’s largest online store, to over a hundred cities. Prime items that are not eligible for free One-Day or Two-Day Delivery to your location, will always qualify for free Standard Delivery with no minimum purchase value. Amazon Prime members will get

• Unlimited free one-day and two-day delivery in over 100 cities.
• 30-minute early access to top Lightning Deals and exclusive offers.
• There is no minimum order size for Prime subscribers.
• It is available at an introductory annual subscription of Rs 499.  (Amazon Prime was available for a free 60-day trial period)
• Apart from the free one and two-day delivery, Prime members in 20 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore, an also opt for same-day morning or scheduled delivery at a discounted fee of Rs 50 per order on 10,000 products.
• Amazon India has said that it will launch Prime Video, which includes Amazon’s original TV series and movies, soon.

Are all products available for Amazon Prime membership?

No.  Items eligible for Prime delivery benefits (free One-Day, Two-Day and Standard Delivery) are clearly marked. Just look for Prime next to product when you search as shown in image below.

Amazon prime while buying product

Choose the Prime logo filter,on Left hand sidebar, to view Prime items only.

Delivery Speed	Items & Addresses
Free One-Day/Two-Day Delivery	Items sold on Amazon.in that are marked with Prime eligibility badge on the product details page and at checkout. Guaranteed One-day/Two-Day delivery is offered in select cities.
Discounted Same-Day/Morning/ Scheduled Delivery	Items sold on Amazon.in that are marked with Prime eligibility badge on the product details page and at checkout. Guaranteed same-day delivery is offered in select cities.
FREE Standard Delivery	Items sold on Amazon.in that are marked with Prime eligibility badge on the product details page and at checkout.
Ineligible	Items fulfilled by sellers that are not marked as Prime eligible. Any item that doesn’t have a message indicating that it’s eligible for Prime on its product page. International destinations Large appliances/Furniture items that are Fulfilled by Amazon

What is Amazon Welcome Kit?

Amazon also delivers a welcome kit along with its prime membership.  It’s simply a letter with a big paper card and a solid block of their logo along with the string for the keys, a block and a sticker which says: “I am Prime amazon Prime”

Amazon Prime Welcome Kit

How does Amazon Prime membership in India compare with other countries?

Amazon Prime membership in India Rs 499($7.4) which is lower than its price in the US ($99) and UK (£79). Amazon Prime subscribers in the US also get unlimited photo storage, access to free e-books on Kindle First and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, and Prime Video and Music. Amazon Prime has been successful in the US, where it has 63 million members. More than half of all Amazon customers in the US are Amazon Prime subscribers. Amazon Prime shoppers also spend an average of $1,200 annually, as compared to $500 for non-members.

How to get Amazon Prime membership?

Log in to Amazon . Click on Prime, where you will be prompted for your location and payment details. You may sign up for Prime by visiting www.amazon.in/prime.

How to cancel your Amazon Prime Membership?

Once you become a member you cannot cancel your Prime membership. It would automatically expire in 1 year from the date of purchase. As shown in image below

Amazon Prime Cancel Membership

Flipkart First

Get your orders delivered within a day’s time with unlimited access to In-a-Day Guarantee Delivery. Standard delivery is also always free, with no minimum purchase price.
In case you want your order delivered the very same day, you get access to Same Day Guarantee Delivery at a discounted price of Rs 70 per item.

• The Flipkart First subscription costs Rs 500 and is valid for 12 months from the date of purchase/issue.
• Flipkart First gives customers free in-a-day guarantee delivery, free standard delivery.
• However, Same Day Guarantee Delivery costs Rs 70 for Flipkart First members,(which is Rs 20 more than Amazon Prime.)
• Flipkart First customers also get “Priority Customer Service,” access. Customers have to call from the number they used when registering for the service in order to get priority access.
• Flipkart First can be purchased via Net Banking, Credit Card, Debit Card & Payzippy payment options, but no cash on delivery, e-Gift Voucher or wallet can be used to buy the service.
• The delivery benefits are limited to select sellers, pin-codes and products on Flipkart, which is similar to Amazon. Flipkart first customers will get standard Returns, Replacements & Exchange Policy applies, so there are no special benefits here. Just like Amazon Prime, Flipkart First users also get Early Access to exclusive product launches, deals, again limited to availability of stocks.
• For more details check out Flipkart First FAQ and Terms and Conditions

Flipkart first

How to get Flipkart First Membership?

Log in to Flipkart . Click on Flipkart First page, where you will be prompted for your location and payment details.

How to get flipkart first membership

How to cancel Flipkart First membership?

• You may choose to cancel your subscription any point during the one-year term. Please note that the subscription fee will be refunded on a pro-rata basis to the payment source that was originally used to buy the subscription. The month in which the subscription is cancelled would be treated as a subscribed month. Refund would be made for the remaining subscription period starting from next subsequent month..
• You may cancel your Flipkart First subscription by calling Customer Support on 1800 208 9898.

Review of Flipkart First

I haven’t come across any promotion from Flipkart promoting this service and reviews I have heard are as follows:

• Works for a few cities only preferably Tier I cities.
• Flipkart First applies only to products directly sold by WS Retail, Flipkart’s “frontend operations” company.
• Discounted same day deliveries and free next day deliveries. Same day deliveries were discounted from 99 to 49 bucks(mostly)

SnapDeal Gold

All orders on SnapDeal ,In select cities, paid through Net Banking, Credit Card, Debit Card, EMI and Wallet will be automatically upgraded at no extra cost to Snapdeal Gold. You get the following benefits at No Extra Cost: Free Express Delivery, Free Shipping, Extended 14 Days Return Benefits. 

How to Avail Snapdeal Gold Upgrade & Get Free Shipping & Multiple Benefits?

1. Visit Snapdeal
2. Add any product Snapdeal Fulfilled to cart.
3. Login or register.
4. Update or select shipping details.
5. Pay the amount with Credit Card/Debit Card/Netbanking/EMI/Wallet
6. You will be automatically upgraded to Snapdeal gold.

Amazon vs Flipkart vs SnapDeal

Coming up with the best deals and offers to take the number 1 e-commerce position, Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal took Diwali sales to a whole new level. In the Pre-Diwali sales, Flipkart has managed to retain its top position. Also, the combined sales of all the three e-commerce entities were calculated at around Rs 6,500 crore which is up by 20% over the previous year as per Financial Express report.

Flipkart said it sold 15.5 million units during its five-day sale, striding past closest rival Amazon which said it clocked sales of 15 million units. Smartphones and televisions helped boost the value of goods sold by Flipkart to $500 million in contrast with Amazon which also sold large amounts of daily consumables, including detergents, spices and groceries. Analysts believe that Flipkart has proved that it still has “an edge” over Amazon India with this sale.

As per the data stated by companies, online retail has penetrated into smaller Indian cities after many attempts to grow the business there.  The number new clients increased five-fold over last Diwali with 70% of new shoppers coming from tier 2 and tier 3 towns. For the company, almost 65% of the Amazon’s orders come from towns categorized as tier II and below. Rival Flipkart says sales from tier II and below cities went up to 42% and 34% from the last year.However, the market expansion due to new shoppers is still limited as a huge part of the sales during the festivity comes from the incremental wallet of the existing buyers.

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Since there is little differentiation or customer loyalty, only one thing matters—discounts. For the most part at least. Which in turn boils down to “who has more money to give away”. It will be interesting to see how the e-commerce battle shapes up. As consumers, we can make the best of the big sales being run by online retailers. The sale will last only till the money lasts. Or, as retailers like to say, “only till stocks last”. Would people in India pay for convenience? In the US, Prime was launched in 2005, a decade after Amazon began operations. In India, it took three years. Have you gone for paid membership for faster delivery ? Do you think it’s worth it.