What if the best way to get someone to shop more is not another discount, but an evening of Netflix? That is the thought behind Flipkart's latest loyalty offer. Customers who complete four eligible orders of ₹299 or more in a month can get a Netflix Mobile subscription. It sounds like a simple perk, but it points to a larger change in the way brands are thinking about loyalty.
For years, the standard formula was fairly straightforward: shop more, get cashback; spend more, collect points; come back, get a discount. Now, brands are looking at things customers can actually use and enjoy, from OTT subscriptions and gaming access to other lifestyle benefits. The appeal is easy to understand: a few hundred rupees of cashback can disappear into the next purchase, but a Netflix subscription feels like something you can actually enjoy.
“Discounts have become hygiene; experiences are becoming differentiation,” says Chandradeep Kumar, National Head - Media & Growth, Efficacy Worldwide. He believes this is particularly relevant for younger consumers, who are looking for benefits that add something to their lives rather than simply reducing the price of their next purchase. A streaming subscription, for instance, can become part of someone's routine, giving the brand a presence beyond the shopping transaction.
That is where the idea gets interesting. A customer orders from Flipkart during the day and watches Netflix at night. The two activities have nothing to do with each other, yet the reward connects them.
But does that mean Flipkart is actually building loyalty? Not necessarily. Kshitij A. Kulkarni, Revenue Marketing Strategist, takes a more sceptical view of the idea that entertainment rewards represent a new era of loyalty. “This is not the start of experience-led retention in India,” he says. “It is the e-commerce chapter of something telecom established years ago.”
Indian consumers are already familiar with this model. Telecom operators have been packaging OTT services into recharge plans, while DTH and other platforms have followed with their own bundles. Streaming, in many cases, has become something people receive as part of another purchase rather than something they actively buy on its own.
Flipkart is taking that familiar idea and putting it into shopping. There is, however, a clever difference. Customers do not simply receive Netflix with their membership. They have to earn it by completing four qualifying orders. That makes the offer less about locking someone into Flipkart and more about giving them a reason to keep coming back.
Kulkarni points out that the maths makes the intention fairly clear. Four orders of ₹299 or more mean a minimum qualifying spend of around ₹1,200, against a Netflix Mobile plan priced at ₹149. “What changed is the currency of the discount, not the nature of the relationship,” he says. That may be the simplest way to look at the entire trend. A Netflix subscription feels more exciting than cashback, but it is still a reward given in exchange for a particular customer behaviour. And for an e-commerce company, that behaviour matters. Getting someone to place one large order is useful. Getting them to return every few days or weeks is potentially much more valuable.
This is especially relevant as platforms compete for everyday categories such as groceries and quick delivery, where frequency can matter as much as basket size. In that sense, Netflix may not be buying loyalty for Flipkart. It may be helping Flipkart buy a habit. The question then becomes whether that habit lasts after the reward disappears.
Prateek Kotha, Brand Strategist, Investor & Growth Evangelist, believes marketers need to look at loyalty as a combination of experience and value rather than choosing one over the other. “It's not just about discounts. It's about creating experiences that feel personal, and ease of interaction is becoming a key driver of loyalty,” he says. But Kotha also points out something that marketers cannot afford to overlook: India remains a value-conscious market. “Experience wins over transaction, but the right mix of qualitative and quantitative benefits is the way forward,” he says.
That makes the choice of reward important. Netflix might be attractive to one customer and irrelevant to another. Someone who already receives Netflix through a telecom plan may not see much value in another subscription. Someone who does not watch Netflix may simply have no reason to care. The reward, therefore, has to fit the customer.
Anup Kumar, Senior Partner, YAAP, sees the same opportunity, but with a word of caution. “OTT subscriptions are a powerful engagement tool, not the holy grail for customer retention,” he says. The distinction is important because brands can easily get carried away by the popularity of the reward itself. A partnership with a big entertainment platform may generate excitement, but that does not automatically mean customers feel more connected to the brand offering it. The real question is whether the partnership strengthens the brand's relationship with its own customer or simply helps another platform acquire users.That is where the mechanics of loyalty programmes start to matter.
Customers are getting better at spotting offers that look attractive on the surface but become frustrating when it is time to redeem them. If there are too many conditions, unclear eligibility rules or too many steps involved, the reward can quickly lose its shine. Kotha says consumers value bundled subscriptions when they make life easier or give them access to something they already use. If the benefit feels irrelevant or complicated, it can come across as just another promotional tactic. There is also something to be said for the psychology of the reward.
Netflix has a clear price. Customers know what the subscription is worth. Points, coins and cashback balances can feel more abstract because their value is often tied to where and how they can be redeemed. That makes entertainment a particularly interesting loyalty currency. It feels less like money being returned and more like something being given. But there is a catch. If a customer has to place four orders simply to unlock a benefit, then manually claim it and make sure they do not miss the redemption window, the reward can begin to feel like homework.
As Kulkarni puts it, the conditions attached to a reward can become the very thing that makes customers feel “tested rather than thanked”. That is perhaps the biggest challenge for brands entering this space. The temptation is to think that a popular subscription is enough. It is not. A good loyalty programme has to make the customer feel that the reward is worth the behaviour being asked of them. It has to be relevant, easy to access and, most importantly, connected to something the brand wants the customer to do again.
For Flipkart, that could mean more frequent orders. For the streaming partner, it could mean another subscriber and more viewing time. For the customer, it is a free month of Netflix. Everyone gets something. But only one question will determine whether the programme really works: will the customer come back next month when there is nothing new to claim?
That is the real test for Netflix, and for the wider crop of subscription-led loyalty programmes now finding their way into shopping, telecom and other everyday services. Entertainment can make a loyalty programme more attractive. It can make the reward easier to understand and more enjoyable to use. But loyalty itself is harder to give away. A Netflix subscription might get the customer through the door. What makes them return is whether the brand keeps giving them a good enough reason to stay.
.png)
