After all the marketplace has accomplished, what’s left for Amazon to do? Amazon Pay, that’s what. After bursting into the advertising market, Amazon is now expanding their very own payment processing system. It looks like they’re going to give Apple a run for their money with their mobile payment options.
Not just for eCommerce stores anymore but also for brick-and-mortars, too, Amazon Pay gives customers the convenience of using their Amazon Account payment methods – except AMEX cards – to pay at third-party stores. Any physical stores that accept the Amazon Pay digital wallet can offer Amazon payment methods to customers.
After all the marketplace has accomplished, what’s left for Amazon to do? Amazon Pay, that’s what. After bursting into the advertising market, Amazon is now expanding their very own payment processing system. It looks like they’re going to give Apple a run for their money with their mobile payment options.
Not just for eCommerce stores anymore but also for brick-and-mortars, too, Amazon Pay gives customers the convenience of using their Amazon Account payment methods – except AMEX cards – to pay at third-party stores. Any physical stores that accept the Amazon Pay digital wallet can offer Amazon payment methods to customers.
Who can use it?
Amazon Pay is of course only available to Amazon customers, but anyone who wants to use it just needs to sign up for an Amazon account. It’s free to use for customers but there’s a standard transaction fee (2.9% + $0.30 per domestic transaction) charged to merchants. Any additional charges that you want to add on to a purchase will be visible to customers before the payment process is completed.
Customers who have used Amazon Pay previously can look forward to a new feature – using an Amazon Pay Balance as a payment method for digital orders.
Using Amazon Pay
You can make Amazon Pay available to your customers on your eCommerce store with Amazon Payments SDK. The process of integrating the Amazon Pay button to your site is even simpler if you are using a partner platform like BigCommerce, Shopify, Magento, or Zuora.
You are in control of which payment methods you want to offer on your site. If you already store customers’ credit card information, for instance, you don’t have to make that payment option available. If you offer only Amazon Balance and customers don’t have enough to complete the purchase, they can top up through their account then return to complete the checkout.
Once that’s set up, the payment process is the same as it is on Amazon. Here’s how it works from your store:
1. When a customer clicks on Amazon Pay, they are redirected to an Amazon page to log in to their account. This is so that they have access to the payment methods on their account.
2. Then they are sent back to your site to select a payment method and complete the checkout process. If you offer more than one payment method and a customer’s Amazon Balance is not enough to cover the purchase, they can combine that with another payment method.
3. They then get a receipt from Amazon Pay once it goes through, and Amazon forwards the money to your account (minus the fee), typically within the same day.
First-time Amazon Pay users on a third-party site will also be redirected to a page requesting customer consent to share their name and email address so that you can use this information to process the order. Customers can request to revoke these permissions at any time, so make sure that if you do get a request, you remove their information from your databases to remain compliant with data privacy law and the Amazon Merchant Agreement.
Amazon Pay Money
This feature allows customers to add money to their Amazon Balance to use at partner stores. This balance is not to be confused with the Gift & Credits balance, which is also under Amazon Pay.
Mobile Payments
Customers can use their mobiles, either using a browser or the Amazon app, to complete transactions on a third-party partner’s app. Using the Amazon app is the easiest Amazon Pay solution since payment methods are saved and customers don’t have to reenter the email and password registered with Amazon. The stored information gets validated on the mobile device and sign-in is automatic.
Security
Amazon Pay does not share customer payment method information with merchants.
Final Thoughts
Because of the added convenience that Amazon Pay offers to customers both in terms of payment options and a simple and familiar process, offering this payment method can increase conversions. It can also increase customer loyalty in addition to sales since most online shoppers trust Amazon. – and Amazon has a 300 +million customer pool you can tap into.
As Amazon Pay becomes more popular among customers and third-party stores, we expect to see this streamlined omnichannel service become one of the hottest out there, particularly for online shoppers. Now is the time to add Amazon Pay to your store!
