Amazon rolls out new digital wallet – for sellers
Third-party sellers on Amazon are gaining more control over management of their own funds.
During the next few months, Amazon is launching Amazon Seller Wallet, a solution intended to provide the e-tail giant’s selling partners more capability to determine how much and when to convert their funds. The tool will enable third-party Amazon sellers to hold, view, and transfer Amazon store proceeds directly to their bank account on their schedule.
All Amazon Seller Wallet functions will occur within Seller Central, the internal dashboard for small businesses that sell on Amazon. There is no cost or minimum amount required to enroll in Amazon Seller Wallet, and account maintenance is free. When sellers convert and transfer funds, volume-based currency conversion and international transfer fees will apply.
The initial launch of Amazon Seller Wallet is now available to a select number of small businesses that sell on Amazon.com. The company plans to collect feedback from sellers and continue to refine the solution over time.
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.
The e-tail giant’s latest offering for third-party sellers comes on the heels of its rolling out a revamped version of its Account Health Rating, designed to help its 2 million third-party sellers adhere to Amazon’s policies and maintain positive account activities.
[Read more: Amazon upgrades success metric for selling partners]
The new Account Health Rating provides sellers with an overall state of their account health, including if the numerical value makes their account “Healthy,” “At-Risk,” or “Unhealthy.”
Amazon also offers a variety of payment options, financing opportunities, and funds management tools for sellers. In the last decade, the company has introduced financing options through Amazon Lending, rewards on Amazon purchases with the Amazon Business Prime American Express Card, and automatic proceeds disbursements through the Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers.
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.
Amazon said sales growth by its selling partners outpaced growth in its own retail business, with Prime Day shoppers spending over $3 billion on more than 100 million small business items.
“Amazon has a long-standing history of providing a trustworthy selling experience for small businesses,” Max Bardon, VP, Amazon Worldwide Payments, said in a corporate blog post. “We designed Amazon Seller Wallet using the back-end technology selling partners trust to keep their transactions safe and information secure. We look forward to offering this tool to more sellers, introducing it in other Amazon stores, and building out further capabilities, like third-party payments and foreign exchange rate tools, in the future.”