Last month, Flipkart announced a new service called Flipkart First, which is a subscription-based service a la Amazon Prime service in US. The service has gone live today and those interested can register for the service by paying a subscription fee of Rs 500 a year.

The service essentially provides subscribers with a lot of benefits like free shipping on all purchases, guaranteed delivery next day and “Same-Day Guarantee” service at a discounted price of Rs 70. This service is only applicable on products bought from WS Retail. While the service will cost users Rs 500 a year, 75,000 customers who took part in the lucky draw will get three month subscription for free.

As mentioned above, this service is quite similar to Amazon’s Prime service available in the US. In comparison, the Prime service costs $99 (approximately Rs 5,946) per year and subscribers are entitled to free two-day shipping with no minimum order size, unlimited streaming of movies and videos on Amazon Instant Video, and a service called Kindle Owners Lending Library, wherein Kindle owners can borrow one free e-book from Amazon’s library.

Flipkart First is sure to give the online retailer a one up on its closest rival, which too has been introducing new services like enlisting local kiranas as pickup points, and Amazon Pickup service in Mumbai and Delhi.