After Amazon Prime, Flipkart Assured, Snapdeal offers premium membership

E-commerce portal Snapdeal has become the latest to join its competition by offering a premium membership service to its customers, called Snapdeal Gold.

The move comes soon after Flipkart launched its Flipkart Assured on the same lines of Amazon Prime service last week. 

Available in select cities currently, under Snapdeal Gold, all the orders paid through net banking, credit card, debit card, EMI and wallet, will automatically be upgraded at no extra cost, to Snapdeal Gold, a premium service, Snapdeal said on its website. 

Snapdeal Gold will enable zero shipping charges always, next day free delivery in select cities, extended 14-day return policy, and assured quality products. 

Like Amazon Prime and Flipkart Assured services, only the Snapdeal Fulfilled (SD+) products will be eligible for the premium service, if they are pre-paid. 

The back-to-back moves from Flipkart and Snapdeal come at a time when the competition between the e-commerce players has intensified, amid slowing funds from the venture capitalists and government's clampdown on heavy-duty discounts to grab a larger chunk of the market share. 

Amazon Prime offers free two-day delivery, access to free video streaming, songs and playlists, early access to deals, on products that are marked as Prime. The recently-launched Flipkart Assured, products that have been put through six levels of quality checks, products from highly ranked sellers. While Amazon Prime is available on all orders above Rs 499, Flipkart Assured is available on orders above Rs 500.