Snapdeal's Gold answer to Amazon, Flipkart premium membership

After rivals Amazon and Flipkart, e-commerce major Snapdeal has now launched a premium membership service for its customers called Snapdeal Gold.

Under the service, Snapdeal will offer customers free shipping, free upgrade to next-day-delivery and extended purchase protection.

The service, to be free for customers, will be available when a user pays for their purchase through Net banking, credit/debit card, EMI or wallet at the time of booking the order, Snapdeal said in a statement.

Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal said its team met over 10,000 customers across the country to identify the key services they wanted from e-commerce companies.

"Snapdeal Gold has been designed to fulfil those needs.

The most important thing is there is no catch and no membership fee, we automatically upgrade your order to Snapdeal Gold," he added.

Most of the 5 million assortment of products available through SD+ -- Snapdeal's fulfilment centres -- will be covered with Snapdeal Gold upgrades, it added.

Amazon, which had launched Amazon Prime in India last month, charges Rs 499 for the service.

Flipkart, on the other hand, launched Flipkart Assured under which products are put through six levels of quality checks and are from highly-ranked sellers.

Snapdeal, a distant number three after Amazon and Flipkart, is trying to working on enhancing customer experience and improving margins amid competition in the e-commerce space.

The battle has intensified following slowdown in flow of funds from venture capitalists and government clamping down on heavy-duty discounts for grabbing a larger chunk of the market.