Prime play: Jabong eyes loyalists via VIP slots, to acquire new customers

Jabong plans to acquire new customers through the 'Big Brand Sale', offering discounts from 51% to 80%

SoftBank Group-backed e-commerce major Flipkart seems to be testing waters again with its own version of loyalty programme — this time, via its fashion arms Myntra and Jabong. This is the platform’s latest move to take on Amazon’s premium membership service Prime.

While keeping plans under wraps, Ananth Narayanan, chief executive Myntra and Jabong, said that they have plans for launching a loyalty programme for both the fashion platforms. “We do have plans for loyalty programmes and memberships for Myntra and Jabong. The slots may be one feature of it. There would be many other things that are actually being thought about in the loyalty programme. We are planning to launch something, but it is going to be reasonably special in the fashion space,” said Narayanan.

On Monday, Jabong.com announced it would launch ‘Big Brand Sale’ from January 25. The fashion major is offering 380,000 styles from 3,000 international and Indian brands at a discounted range of between 51 per cent and 80 per cent across product categories. Jabong is targeting 80 per cent sales growth in the new avatar of its sale and is expecting to clock in seven times revenue over average daily sales.

As part of the sale, the company is launching exclusive slots for its ‘VIP’ customers. “In a first for the platform, Jabong would be opening a pre-sale window on January 24, from 7 pm to 10.30 pm, with special offers for its VIP customers, and next-day delivery in select metros like Delhi-NCR. Other customers can win slots for the VIP sale period by participating in in-app games,” said Gunjan Soni, head of Jabong.

Narayanan said they were planning to bring in a large number of new customers via the Big Brand Sale. “The reason we do this is because it also helps us in customer acquisitions. This would be a large new customer acquisition event for Jabong. We are expecting around 100,000 new customers to get added during the sale,” he added.

A few years ago, Flipkart had tried its hands with a loyalty programme, Flipkart First, but was not able to get much traction. 

Flipkart’s biggest rival, Amazon India, with its mix of fashion, grocery and in-app entertainment play for its Prime, has been able to gain as many as 100 million paid members in India, according to industry insiders.

According to the company, in its most recent Great Indian Sale, Prime membership purchases stood at 4.5 times over a normal day. “Amazon.in added Prime members from over 300 cities, including Srinagar in north, Erode in south, Bhuj in west and Hooghly in East,” the company said.

Financial services platform Paytm also recently introduced ‘Paytm Loyalty Points’, which customers can earn doing multiple activities within its ecosystem. To start with, all cash backs that customers receive on the platform would be accumulated as loyalty points. “These points can then be redeemed across online platforms as well as over five million merchant outlets that accept Paytm. The company, which will also introduce more features in this offering in the coming year, aims to reward its vast user base and encourage them to transact digitally,” the company said.

According to Soni, VIP customers would mostly be regular customers. “There are certain criteria on basis of which we will choose people who can participate for the VIP slots, such as past transaction history. Customers can also win a pass if they play a few contests with us. It is also based around the amount of wish list people make. There are some interesting activities we are doing on social media,” Soni said.
 

Buying loyalty

Jabong’s VIP customers

• Early access to sale
• Exclusive product line-up

 
Amazon Prime

• Next-day delivery
• Preference during sales Entertainment

Paytm Loyalty Points

• Loyalty points to get benefits at brick and mortar stores
• Aims at rewarding its user base and driving business growth for merchant partners