Sam Oliver
Online retail giant Amazon on Wednesday unveiled Local Register, a new mobile credit card reader and companion app-based payment processing system that allows users to accept plastic payments on their iPhone or iPad.
Amazon's new system works much like its more established competitors — users attach a small, plastic card reader to the headphone jack of their handset or tablet that converts input from a credit card's magnetic stripe to audio waveforms. A companion application then interprets the reader's input and handles communication with Amazon's processing backend.
Rather than offer the reader for free as Square, PayPal, and Intuit do, however, Amazon will charge users $10 up front and credit that amount back in processing fees. The company will also charge just 1.75 percent of each transaction through the end of 2015, increasing the fee to 2.5 percent afterwards.
Square and PayPal charge 2.75 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. Intuit's GoPayment charges 1.75 percent for subscribers, but 2.4 percent for users on pay-as-you-go plans.
Amazon promises to deposit funds into users' bank accounts the next business day following a transaction, and they will be made available for purchases on Amazon's website "within minutes." The program is limited to businesses based in the U.S. to start.
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42 Comments
That device is huge! Can't they make a more sensibly sized attachment?
That device is huge! Can't they make a more sensibly sized attachment?
Have to keep it large enough for everyone to see who you're working with. ;)
When are investors going to wake up to the insanity of this company? They don't make money, yet they want everyone else to give up their margin so they don't have to raise their prices. They are now in their own branded hardware business which loses money. They are in far too many businesses with no particular focus on profitability on any of them. And they now want retailers to use Amazon hardware and software for payments. Meanwhile Amazon is taking their customers through online sales, and losing money in doing so. Amazon is also putting tools in those retailers' customers' hands which allow the shopper to point their Amazon device's camera at the retailer's instore merchandise, then automatically and instantly find it on Amazon instead so the customer can order it cheaper. How else can you describe insanity? What retailer would want to feed their competitor's machine?
The company that claims to be the "Everything Store" is following through on that vision. What they will soon realize is that they are following in the footsteps of Sears. What they will learn is that trying to do everything will eventually mean they will do nothing very well.
[quote name="FreeRange" url="/t/181806/amazon-takes-on-square-paypal-with-new-ios-connected-local-register-card-reader#post_2578377"]When are investors going to wake up to the insanity of this company? They don't make money, yet they want everyone else to give up their margin so they don't have to raise their prices. They are now in their own branded hardware business which loses money. They are in far too many businesses with no particular focus on profitability on any of them. And they now want retailers to use Amazon hardware and software for payments. Meanwhile Amazon is taking their customers through online sales, and losing money in doing so. Amazon is also putting tools in those retailers' customers' hands which allow the shopper to point their Amazon device's camera at their instore merchandise, then automatically and instantly find it on Amazon so they can order it cheaper. How else can you describe insanity? What retailer would want to feed their competitor's machine?[/quote] It looks to me like Amazon is looking less competitive on their pricing recently. I compared items in Target versus Anazon and CVS and found Amazon and CVS way, way overpriced on some shaving products. Gotta give it to Target.