Amazon stakes major claim in payment landscape
Amazon.com is serving notice to Apple, PayPal and other leading online payment providers that it is looking to challenge their turf.
The online retail giant is launching a new program called the Amazon Payments Partner Program that enables e-commerce platforms to provide Amazon Payments functionality to their users. Previously, Amazon had made its proprietary payments service available to individual third-party online retailers.
The program will offer solution pre-integration, best practices, knowledge-sharing and other tools and features to platforms that adopt it. As a result, e-commerce retailers using hosted platforms will be able to let their customers make digital payments with existing Amazon accounts, rather than have to create new payment accounts with new user names and passwords.
Amazon Payments Partner Program is free and offered in several tiered levels. It is currently available via invitation in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan. So far, publicly identified partners include Shopify, Future Shop and PrestaShop. Amazon and Shopify announced their payment partnership in September 2015, but did not indicate it was part of a planned larger program at the time.
“The Amazon Payments Partner Program provides Partners with the tools and resources needed to extend the trust and convenience of the Amazon experience to their merchant customers,” said Patrick Gauthier, VP, Amazon Payments. “We are working together across geographies and industries to help merchants grow and create experiences that delight customers throughout the shopping journey.”
Amazon Payments has 285 million members, and 23 million have already made at least one payment on a non-Amazon partner site. This program could certainly boost the percentage of Amazon Payment users who apply their credentials to other sites, as well as draw more consumers to the service. The online payment marketplace is still in its early stages of development, but the pace of competition is growing rapidly.