Amazon India has launched Amazon Prime, a service that costs Rs 499 per year that enables members to access free, guaranteed and unlimited one-day and two-day delivery, along with early access to what the company calls ‘Lightning Deals’. The service also offers discounted same-day morning and scheduled deliveries to areas in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and ‘other cities’ across India.
At the time of launch, the company is offering a free 60-day trial, after which the service will be priced at Rs 499, although the site does hint that this pricing may increase to Rs 999 thereafter.
Amazon Prime appears very similar to the Flipkart First premium subscription service that has similar offerings, comprising free shipping on orders, free one-day delivery, discounted same-day delivering and priority customer service. Flipkart First is priced at Rs 500 per year.
Amazon’s Lightning Deals enables subscribers to gain a 30-minute early access window to special shopping deals on the website, along with member-only exclusive sales. These are accessed by choosing the Prime Early Access filter when searching for deals. Products and items that are eligible for Prime access will be marked by a special Prime logo.
At launch, Amazon has not introduced their popular video content as part of the Prime offering, although the e-commerce website does mention that their Amazon original series and movies along with premium movies and TV shows from Indian and international production houses will be coming soon.
In the US, Amazon Prime includes access to Prime Video and Prime Music services, but costs $99 per year (approximately Rs 6,670) or a discounted $39 for students (approximately Rs 2,627.)
Find out more about Amazon Prime here.
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