Paytm is launching a subscription-based rewards and loyalty programme– Paytm First– which bundles up offers from top internet companies including annual memberships for Zomato Gold, Gaana, Sony LIV, Viu Premium, Eros Now and Uber as it looks to increase customer retention in a competitive and hotly contested digital payments ecosystem.
The primary motive behind this loyalty programme is to retain customers by rewarding them for their repeat purchase behaviour – a critical metric for a digital payments company. The move also helps these partner companies across video and music streaming, food and travel, shopping and lifestyle to expand their customer base and reach without spending marketing dollars.
This is also Paytm’s attempt at building a super app platform like China’s tech behemoth Tencent.
Paytm has priced this service at Rs 750, while claiming to give benefits with Rs 12,000, which also includes cashbacks and priority shipping and customer service at the company’s e-commerce arm Paytm mall, the company said.
“We are happy to have partnered with leading players from their respective verticals during the initial launch phase itself and we will continue to expand the Paytm First programme with more benefits and value to our customers,” said Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice President, Paytm, adding that the company aims to sell over 3 million subscriptions within the first year of its launch.
Over the last few years, several players including Flipkart owned PhonePe, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, WhatsApp payment have entered the digital payment business with deep pockets and large distribution, incentivising customers to pay using their product. At the same time, credit card companies too have upped their game and started offering higher rewards, cashbacks to their customers.
Given this change in the fintech ecosystem which until then was largely dominated by Paytm, it is critical for the company to innovate and ensure customer repeats and stickiness to maintain its market leadership. Paytm is backed by Japan’s SoftBank, China’s Alibaba and Ant Financial, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
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