After Swiggy and Flipkart, Oyo launches paid subscription 'Oyo Wizard'

Rolling out loyalty programme has been a sort of trend amongst consumer Internet companies. After Amazon, Zomato, Flipkart, and Jabong, budget hotel brand Oyo has launched a membership programme Oyo Wizard. Priced at Rs 99, Oyo Wizard covers a range of benefits including per cent discount and free upgrade amongst others.

Given that over 90 per cent of the company’s revenue comes from repeat customers, Oyo Wizard would see a decent demand from them. Besides 5 per cent instant discount on bookings, members will also get an additional 10 per cent discount on their next stay at the same hotel.

Oyo Wizard covers the range of hotels including Oyo Rooms, Townhouse, Home and Edition O and a few others.

Paid subscription plan in India was first introduced by Amazon (Amazon Prime) in July 2016. Since then, many companies have launched loyalty programmes. Foodtech major Zomato offered a slew of subscriptions such as Treat, Gold, and Piggybank.

On the lines of rival Amazon, Flipkart also had rolled out Flipkart Plus to offer free delivery, exclusive access to sales event, and earn Plus Coin that can be redeemed on third-party platform. Interestingly, Flipkart Plus claimed to have amassed 1 million members and garnered Rs 1,250 crore in revenue within 5 days of its launch.

Last month, Swiggy also had launched subscription Swiggy Super (priced between Rs 99 to 149). It lets subscribers avail unlimited free deliveries across all restaurants listed on the Meituan-backed company.

Meanwhile, fashion e-tailer Myntra and Jabong are also slated to launch their own loyalty programmes.

Building a loyal customer base through paid subscriptions or membership seems like a viable idea for several e-commerce companies. So far, e-commerce in India has largely been driven by discount and freebies. Online companies see paid subscription plans as one of the mediums to establish more frequent and repeat purchases.

The development was first reported by ET.