Amazon increases payment access to sellers

Select U.S. sellers using Amazon Pay can now receive payouts faster and during expanded hours.

Express Payout is now available to eligible U.S. businesses using Amazon Pay digital payment. Amazon Pay’s new integration with a network of hundreds of banks and credit unions means that third-party sellers will no longer have use the ACH network, where it can take up to five days to process payments, according to Amazon.

Instead, when eligible sellers log in to the Seller Central portal, they can opt in to Express Payout to start receiving payouts of up to 1 million at no additional cost within 24 hours, including on weekends). Sellers can opt in to instantly have access to Express Payout when they join Amazon Pay. Information is protected with Amazon’s security system.

“Express Payout for Amazon Pay helps businesses of all sizes grow,” Omar Soudodi, Director of Amazon Pay, said in a statement emailed to Chain Store Age. “With this new feature, merchants can reap the benefits of their sales and tackle the unexpected costs of expanding their business in an ever-evolving economic climate–with payouts at the fast speed Amazon is known for.”

Amazon supports sellers

Amazon actively assists third-party retailers (primarily small-to-medium-sized businesses) to sell on its Amazon Marketplace e-commerce platform with at least 150 tools and services, and regularly adds new offerings.

Third-party sellers are becoming an increasingly important part of Amazon’s business. According to the company, its recent 2022 Prime Day event, which broke records with close to $12 billion in total sales during the July 12-13 period, was also the biggest-ever Prime Day event for Amazon's third-party selling partners.

And in fall 2022, the e-tailer moved its Amazon Community Lending initiative out of pilot stage. Introduced as a pilot in partnership with minority-led community development financial institution (CDFI) Lendistry, this program offers loans ranging from $10,000 to $250,000, with terms of up to five years. Small businesses approved for a loan from Lendistry through the Amazon Community Lending program can use these funds to grow their business in Amazon’s U.S. store and to cover other strategic business needs, such as staffing and operations costs, inventory, product development and manufacturing, and marketing.

Since 2011, Amazon has provided loans to small businesses selling in its stores through Amazon Lending. Through its partnership with Lendistry, Amazon is now focusing on helping to reach urban and rural small businesses in socially and economically distressed communities.