There are many routes a loyalty programme can take to increase its reach, and the newest one for Marriott Bonvoy appears to be partnering with Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce platform.
Marriott Bonvoy to partner with Flipkart
Marriott will announce a partnership with Flipkart on Wednesday, which will enable members of Marriott Bonvoy and Flipkart to earn Bonvoy points when making purchases on Flipkart and Cleartrip (a Flipkart group company). The new arrangement will also allow for the conversion of Flipkart SuperCoins into hotel points. One can currently earn SuperCoins when shopping on Flipkart, as well as Cleartrip and Myntra.
Manjari Singhal (Flipkart) and John Toomey (CCO, Marriott International)
John Toomey, the CCO of Marriott International (Asia Pacific, excluding China), is in India to announce the deal. The conversion will be homogeneous across, with two SuperCoins equaling one Bonvoy point, and two Marriott Bonvoy Points equaling one SuperCoin. This effectively halves the value in round-trip conversions. For instance, 100 SuperCoins are converted to 50 Bonvoy points, but converting back yields only 25 SuperCoins.
This is Marriott’s attempt to start engaging with a larger population across India who may not have considered them their hospitality partner so far, but will start to think of them once they begin earning Bonvoy Points. Marriott already offers the Marriott Bonvoy HDFC Bank Credit Card, which was launched two years ago for earning points on retail spends.
Other similar integrations have been made, for instance, between Swiggy and IndiGo BluChip recently.
Bottomline
Flipkart and Marriott Bonvoy are announcing a new partnership, where shoppers on Flipkart will be able to earn Marriott Bonvoy points on their purchases. The partnership is expected to go live soon and will work both ways, with 2 Bonvoy points becoming one SuperCoin and vice versa.
What do you think of the new partnership between Marriott Bonvoy and Flipkart? What are the potential use cases?
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Hi Ajay
What’s the use case for this, and who would be the target audience?
Anyone who would have taken the trouble to accumulate enough SuperCoins / MB points, would probably realize those are worth more on a standalone basis?
I can think of only someone whose currency is expiring soon as the potential customer. Anything I am missing??
I think it’s Sales getting into Marketing. Spray-and-pray approach is commonplace.
Hahahahahaha!
Saw this after a hectic few days on the road. Thanks for the laughs!
The phrase “Sales getting into Mktg” is Gold
Interesting