E-tailers bank on premium services

It is not just big-ticket sales that e-commerce majors are targeting this festive season. Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal have launched premium services with different permutations and combinations and are concentrating on bringing more customers into the fold.

A lot has changed for these players since last year. While Amazon came out with its paid membership service Prime, Flipkart launched a free service, Assured, in addition to the subscription-based Flipkart First. Snapdeal, which has been trying to recover the market position taken away by Amazon, came out with Snapdeal Gold, a free service that has effectively helped it reduce cash on delivery. Amazon India is including more products under Prime.

"This festive season, we are working on providing the best service to all our customers so that they get the fastest delivery and the product of their choice,'' an Amazon executive said. Prime members would be intimated first about exclusive launches, while they enjoy express deliveries.