Amazon’s recent announcements surrounding Prime Day 2025 in India harbor a troubling question: are these discounts genuinely about benefiting the consumer or merely a tactical move to entrench Amazon’s dominance? The rollout of early deals, coupled with a seemingly generous cashback program dubbed Rewards Gold, appears more like a calculated gambit to lock consumers into a dependency cycle. While the rhetoric touts savings, the underlying message is clear—Amazon wants to maximize consumer spending, encouraging repeated transactions under the guise of rewards. This strategic incentive to keep users engaged through cashback benefits might seem appealing initially, but it perpetuates a fragile dependency that benefits Amazon more than its customers.
The Cashback Program: A Trojan Horse for Consumer Control
Introducing the Rewards Gold program, Amazon aims to promote frequent usage of its payment app, Amazon Pay, by offering up to 5 percent cashback for Prime members and 3 percent for non-Prime users. To access this, consumers must complete 25 transactions, transforming what would otherwise be simple routine payments into a transactional maze designed to increase Amazon’s transaction volume. This isn’t an act of generosity but a masterstroke of consumer manipulation — incentivizing habits that may lead to unnecessary purchases, thereby increasing Amazon’s revenues at the expense of consumer financial health. Essentially, what looks like a benevolent reward could be more accurately viewed as a subtle form of behavioral conditioning, nudging users to transact more frequently in order to maximize benefits.
The Illusion of Choice—A Domain of Monopoly
The expansion of cashback rewards across various categories and partnership with over 55,000 merchant sites further consolidates Amazon’s dominion over Indian digital and offline commerce. The promise of cashback on everything from groceries to subscriptions at platforms like Zomato, JioHotstar, and Microsoft Xbox masks a deeper truth: Amazon is orchestrating a form of digital and marketplace monopoly. By tying these rewards to their ecosystem, Amazon discourages consumers from exploring alternative retail options, subtly steering shopping behaviors to favor their platform. Such tactics reinforce centralized control, limiting consumer autonomy and shaping a less competitive marketplace—one where consumer choice is manipulated to serve Amazon’s strategic interests.
The Ethical Question: Who Really Benefits?
While the headlines scream benefits for consumers in the form of discounts and cashback, the reality is more complex. These schemes often lead to unnecessary purchases, fostering consumer debt and impulsive buying. Meanwhile, Amazon’s broader strategy reinforces its monopoly, potentially stifling competition and innovation from smaller players and local vendors. As a center-leaning observer, I argue that this relentless pursuit of consumer loyalty through incentivization reveals a troubling reliance on consumer dependency—a tactic that risks perpetuating economic inequality and consolidating corporate power at the expense of fair market competition. It’s imperative to question whether these “benefits” are genuine or camouflage a deeper intent to entrench Amazon’s hegemony in India’s rapidly evolving retail landscape.
Leave a Reply