Amazon, PayPal team up for digital payment
Amazon customers in the U.S. will be able to pay with Venmo for purchases on Amazon.com and the Amazon mobile shopping app in the near future.
In 2022, Amazon will start allowing Venmo’s more than 80 million users in the U.S. to pay with the PayPal-owned digital payment platform at online and mobile checkout. Venmo users will be able to apply funding methods that include their linked bank account and Venmo balance.
Amazon is giving a major boost to Venmo’s status as an e-commerce payment method following in the footsteps of a few well-known retailers that have adopted the digital payment platform for brick-and-mortar payments. In October 2021, Macy’s added PayPal and Venmo as contactless in-store payment options. All Macy’s stores nationwide are now enabled to accept these two contactless payment options. To pay at the register, customers can open their PayPal or Venmo apps, select scan or show to pay to display a QR code that Macy’s sales colleagues will scan to complete the transaction.
And in August 2021, Giant Eagle and its GetGo division became the first U.S. supermarket and convenience chains to accept PayPal and Venmo payments at the physical store checkout. The two banners of Pittsburgh-based parent company Giant Eagle Inc., which operates 474 stores across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, and Maryland, are leveraging technology from Blackhawk Network and partnering with PayPal and Venmo to bring these payment methods in store.
Giant Eagle and GetGo began accepting PayPal and Venmo payment in-store on the heels of drugstore giant CVS Pharmacy, which in November 2020 became the first major national retailer to offer touch-free payment with PayPal and Venmo QR codes at its brick-and-mortar stores.
By branching into accepting PayPal-owned Venmo payments on its e-commerce site and mobile app, leading e-commerce retailer Amazon may make itself even more desirable to digital shoppers. According to a recent survey from retail operating system provider Brightpearl which asked consumers how they prefer to pay online. PayPal (58%) was the top choice, followed by credit (51%) and debit cards (47%). Other digital payment options cited by respondents included Amazon Pay (32%), Google Pay (29%), Apple Pay (26%), Shopify (19%), and Klarna (16%).
“Over the last year, we have focused on giving our Venmo community more ways to use Venmo in their daily lives, including the ability to pay with QR Codes and providing more shopping features like purchase protections,” said Darrell Esch, senior VP and GM, Venmo. “We’re thrilled to make it possible for our users and Amazon customers to pay with Venmo starting next year.”
“We understand our customers want options and flexibility in how they make purchases on Amazon,” said Ben Volk, director of global payment acceptance, Amazon. “We’re excited to team up with Venmo and give our customers the ability to pay by using their Venmo accounts, providing new ways to pay on Amazon.”