Amazon Payments to compete with Google Checkout and PayPal

[mandy]

send money to any email address or mobile number:
https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/pa...about=true

[mandy]

Amazon Payments introduced 2 new services for website sellers:

Checkout by Amazon

Checkout By Amazon is a complete checkout solution that leverages Amazon's e-commerce capabilities and offers your customers a familiar, trusted experience.

Checkout by AmazonTM is a complete ecommerce checkout solution that provides your customers with the same secure and trusted checkout experience available on Amazon.com today. It offers unique features including Amazon's 1-Click® and tools for businesses to manage shipping charges, sales tax, promotions, and post-sale activities including refunds, cancellations, and chargebacks.

Business and Seller Accounts

Business Accounts are subject to the same account limits as Personal Accounts except they are permitted to receive up to $2,000 per month once a credit card is added to the account. Business Accounts may disburse to verified bank accounts. Please see Adding New Payment Methods for details on verifying your bank account.

Seller Accounts are used only in connection with Checkout by Amazon to receive payments for the sale of physical goods. They are not eligible to send payments to any other user. Seller Accounts may be subject to receiving limits, which are determined based on performance criteria.

There are some requirements for using Checkout by Amazon on your website, as listed below. Checkout by Amazon is currently restricted to sellers who meet the following conditions:

You have a U.S. street address (not a P.O. Box)
You have a bank account registered with a U.S. street address*
You have a phone registered with a U.S. street address*
You have a credit card registered with a U.S. street address*

If you are an international business, you can use Checkout by Amazon as long as you meet the following conditions:

You are registered as a foreign business doing business in the U.S.
You have a U.S. Tax ID number
You have a U.S. bank account, a U.S. mailing address (not P.O. box), a U.S. credit card, and a U.S. phone number*

more info: https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business?sn=cba/o
"What Your Customers See": https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/bu...n=cba/what
"How Checkout by Amazon Works for You": https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/bu...sn=cba/how
pricing: https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/bu...ba/pricing
getting started guide (.pdf format): http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/..._Guide.pdf
integration guide ).pdf format): http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/..._Guide.pdf

Amazon Simple Pay

Amazon Simple Pay is a set of payment-only products that allow your customers to use payment information from their Amazon.com account as a payment method on your website.

more info: https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/bu...n=paynow/o

edit: commentary on the launch of Checkout by Amazon:

There are a few reasons you might consider adding Amazon Checkout to your roster of payment options, including:

    * Access to 81 million (no, I didn’t forget a decimal) people already hold Amazon accounts. This is roughly 30% more than PayPal. Customers would not have to create a new account to checkout with you, nor share any additional personal information. If a customer has multiple billing and shipping addresses on file with Amazon, that can be very convenient for the customer.
    * Through IP-targeting, Amazon can recognize Amazon.com customers and display the 1-Click checkout for them.
    * Show cross-sells and upsells in your cart. And if you show Amazon products in your upsells (eww), you can earn Amazon Associate commissions.
    * Call it a halo effect, but having the option to checkout through Amazon Checkout may carry some brand equity - provided experience with the Big A was positive. Plus, Amazon customers are likely aware of the A-to-Z Guarantee, which you now offer by virtue of the Amazon Checkout option.

full article: http://www.getelastic.com/amazon-checkou...th-amazon/

    Amazon’s biggest weakness in general in the world of ecommerce technology like this is that they are trying to be both a technology provider to retailers and a competitor. Large retailers (TRU, Borders, etc.) have left Amazon’s third party business en masse because of this and I don’t imagine they will be jumping for joy to add Amazon’s checkout to their sites. For example, you won’t be seeing Wal-mart.com add this any day soon.

    This actually plays to PayPal and Google’s advantage and I’m sure as a first response we’ll see them play up these fears: “Do you REALLY want Amazon seeing all of your transactions, learning about your top sellers and then using that data to compete with you?” The fact that Amazon has a well documented history of using partner data to their advantage in the third-party selling world will make this argument very believable...

full article: http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_str...nches.html

[crypticdragon]

[quote author=amy link=topic=15619.msg67137#msg67137 date=1197855172]

an easily integrate Amazon Payments into their shopping carts and checkout pages if someone develops a Zen Cart mod.

[/quote]

There is a Zen Cart Module for Checkout by Amazon.  It was released at the same time as Checkout by Amazon.  It also has its own dedicated support forum.

Module can be downloaded at http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/..._07_29.zip 
Zen Cart & Checkout by Amazon Forum http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/for...forumID=40 

[amy]

The only (big) negative I see so far is:

(6) The orders that are processed through Checkout by Amazon will not appear in the Zen Cart records or database. Please log in to Seller Central to review the orders processed though Checkout by Amazon.

[mandy]

Amazon Payments has added a blog: http://www.amazonpaymentsblog.com/

[mandy]

Webinar: Checkout by Amazon - How it works...and why do you care?
Tue, Jan 13, 2009 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM PST
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/977243763

[Meribah]

It's the fees that matters, if this is going to be cheaper then I will use it; otherwise I'll just use paypal