Amazon Payment Systems Take On PayPal 92
Bridger writes "Amazon has introduced two new payment systems for merchants and consumers, which brings it into a market dominated by PayPal. Google introduced a similar system for merchants and consumers in 2006, also called Checkout, but it has not found favor with online retailers. Auction giant eBay, which owns PayPal, has prevented consumers from using the Google system."
ecash / opencoin (Score:3, Interesting)
Hopefully someone will implement ecash again, e.g. opencoin.org, and will provide some more interesting payment features for the users.
Same Song, Different Verse (Score:5, Insightful)
Auction giant eBay, which owns PayPal, has prevented consumers from using the Google system.
So, thank goodness Amazon has released a system, so that eBay will not use it too.
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:5, Interesting)
Google doesn't have anything to sell, but not so for Amazon, it doesn't need eBay users to survive, Amazon has enough users to get this thing started.
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Not only that, but Amazon also provides a marketplace for its users too, which brings it into rather more direct competition with eBay. The only bit missing is the auction element - and thank heavens for that!
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Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:5, Interesting)
I personally would want something like a cross between paypal and e-gold. Buyer beware (no freezing and locking accounts, which only effects legitimate sellers). But without the whole gold thing.
It's the age of e-commerce, why still can't I send money easily/cheaply?
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E-Gold? You mean Ponzi Pesos don't you?
PayPal is often (mostly??) used for things totally unrelated to Ebay. It was in business long before Ebay purchased them.
It has a lot of advantage when dealing with people you don't want to provide any permanent credentials, such as when buying something from an unknown individual or donating money to some organization, group, or charity.
E-Gold, on the other hand was, is, an always will be a scam.
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:5, Informative)
It has a lot of advantage when dealing with people you don't want to provide any permanent credentials, such as when buying something from an unknown individual or donating money to some organization, group, or charity.
Visa, at least, and probably the other cards by now, have a system where you can generate a single use credit card number pre authorized for specific merchant and dollar amount. So you can use that numbe in an online transaction and the merchant gets a number that's only valid for that single use single dollar amount. If it gets stolen, no big deal. If the merchant tries to double bill it, no dice. etc etc. And I trust Visa a lot more than Paypal.
I don't hate paypal, but I do dislike using it given all the limitations, fees, and scams. I also despise the ebay/paypal pairing.
As for egold... yeah total scam... it had potential...maybe something like it still does.
But I think the real juggernauts -- the banks -- still have to weigh in on this.
My bank recently introduced "Interac Email Money Transfer" and its pretty freaking impressive. I can send money to nearly anyone in Canada with a Canadian bank account, and an email address. We don't need to share bank information or personal information at all. All I need to know as the sender is the recipients email address -- any email address, they can even use a throw-away one as long as they can pick up email on it, and I don't need to know what bank they belong to as long as its participating in the Interac Email system which is currently the 5 major Canadian banks (TD, RBC, Scotia, CIBC, and BMO).
The price is a flat $1.50 per transaction, which is pretty steep to pay for a $10.00 ebay win... but a drop in the bucket when paying for a $500 transaction. There is no fee to receive money.
If they don't use one of the 5 participating banks, but have an account at, for example, a credit union, they can -still- receive money, but I think it gets redirected through a more complicated and time consuming inter-bank transfer, and there is a fee charged to the recipient.
For me this is the paypal killer. Not only is it secure convenient and trustworthy but banks and credit unions, at least in Canada are pretty customer service oriented...toll free 24-hour hot-lines, and genuinely useful staff are the norm in my experience with TD, RBC, and Scotiabank. Contrast that with Paypal. :)
Already for me, anything significant is now done via this interac system when I can. Once it expands to the credit unions and/or goes international... I think paypal and its cohorts will be reduced to competing for petty cash transactions and micropayments, e.g. sending sums like... $1 or $5, where the $1.50 fee is just too much.
but I wouldn't be surprised to see the interac system evolve and start offering 'plans' in addition to the a la cart flat fee.
For details check it out...
http://www.interac.ca/consumers/productsandservices_ol_emt.php [interac.ca] ... not sure if something like this is in the states yet...
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:4, Informative)
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While this sounds like a really great system, unless they slash the fee, there is no way it will ever be a Paypal killer, or even serious competitor. The secret behind Paypal has always been the low fee, which means huge volume. You can use it for almost any transaction, no matter the size. This system sounds great, but how many transactions large enough to make the $1.50 reasonable are actually going on over the net, especially when compared to the millions of small transactions just done by eBay?
As a b
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I recently sold some software on Ebay. This is something I rarely do but it was the place to get the most money.
Between ebay and paypal I paid 16.00 for 165.00 transaction. It roughly went half and half. Around 8.00 just to paypal. The percentage kills me. I still occasionally buy from ebay but I'll probably never sell there again.
If they took google I might. I don't have an issue giving ebay their fees. But in the day of electronic instant transactions sending money should be almost free.
The only o
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Sorry for the double post... slashdot munched my formatting.
While this sounds like a really great system, unless they slash the fee, there is no way it will ever be a Paypal killer, or even serious competitor.
1) Paypal's fees are quite a bit higher than you seem to think. They are currently:
2) And yeah, while paypal still has the advantage in the micropayments area, I'd be willing to pay a buck fifty to send a $1000, $500, even $200 through the bank network instead.
3) I think if it catches on, there -will-
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I just used CIBC's Interac Email Money Transfer system, and it was a pain in the ass. Having to pick a security question that the recipient has to answer? Ok, I can kinda sorta understand that.
Given that that is the only shared security information, its not bad. Remember anyone can claim the funds if they intercept the email. The ONLY security is the secret/question answer.
However, their are draconian limitations on what can be entered. Length limitation when trying to come up with your own question? That c
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For me this is the paypal killer. Not only is it secure convenient and trustworthy but banks and credit unions, at least in Canada are pretty customer service oriented...toll free 24-hour hot-lines, and genuinely useful staff are the norm in my experience with TD, RBC, and Scotiabank. Contrast that with Paypal.
But, this means you have to actually have the money to send. With PayPal (or other payment services), you can back your payment with a credit card. For the vast amount of people who rack up a lot of debt, this is important.
I use a credit card for PayPal payments because I get the credit card rewards. Plus, I don't like some of the PayPal practices very much. In particular, at one time sending "cash" (i.e., transfer from a bank account) was free. Later, it had a small fee. Now, it is exactly the same a
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But, this means you have to actually have the money to send. With PayPal (or other payment services), you can back your payment with a credit card. For the vast amount of people who rack up a lot of debt, this is important.
1) People -should- have the money before they buy stuff. Any financial advisor will tell you that. If you -need- credit for an ebay purchase, you've probably got issues. :)
2) There is nothing stopping anyone from making a cash advance from their credit card into their bank account. I can
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I use a cc for paypal because I don't trust paypal, and wouldn't EVER give them my bank account details.
I had heard that you couldn't get a "Verified" account without a bank account. Since that limits some of what you can do, I verified with them.
I suppose the best thing would be to get a throwaway bank account that keeps no real money in it, and use that as the "verified" account.
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I had heard that you couldn't get a "Verified" account without a bank account. Since that limits some of what you can do, I verified with them.
Could be. I signed up in 2001 ago and am Canadian. I'm not even sure if they supported linking to a Canadian bank at that time, and adding a credit card was enough to 'get verified' at the time. (An unverified account at the time was one that was simply opened, and then funded by having another paypal user send you cash, which you couldn't withdraw)
But you could send
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Interac Email Money Transfers (IEMTs) have been available from the major banks in Canada for at least the last 6 years. They're very convenient when paying your rent, etc. - giving money to people you know in real life, for relatively large sums.
PayPal is designed for online retailers who need to process one-time or recurring monthly payments without getting a merchant account. In other words, it's geared towards businesses - it has features like recurring payments, storing your credit card number for futur
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Interac Email Money Transfers (IEMTs) have been available from the major banks in Canada for at least the last 6 years. They're very convenient when paying your rent, etc. - giving money to people you know in real life, for relatively large sums.
I find them extremely useful for giving larger one time transaction sums of $100+ to people I don't know, online.
PayPal is designed for online retailers who need to process one-time or recurring monthly payments without getting a merchant account. In other words, it
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PayPal also offers this feature via the PayPal Plug-in. You
Re:Same Song, Different Verse (Score:4, Insightful)
> I personally would want something like a cross between paypal
I'd be interested in a cross between paypal and something good, which is supported by people who give a shit about their customers and don't just send stock replies to users who are complaining about getting only stock replies. I've stopped using eBay because of it too, although it looks like I got out just in time - by all accounts it's much more dodgy to buy/sell stuff on there these days.
Illegal? (Score:2, Insightful)
Am I naive or doesn't that violate some kind of consumer rights?
Re:Illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Am I naive or doesn't that violate some kind of consumer rights?
The consumer's right is that they can shop elsewhere.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Mmmm.. you mean like when you walk into fred's department store & they accept mastercard but not visa?
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No, but if I am Sears and have just invested a boatload in the Discover card, I can very well prohibit anyone from purchasing items in my store with any other credit card. The catch in the retail domain, is that there is vigorous competition so 1) a customer can go elsewhere for the same goods at a similar price and 2) Sears would be very foolish to do so.
Contrast this to the eBay/Paypal situation where they also have a financial interest but have a pretty solid lock on the online auction domain.
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Depends on whether or not Ebay has a monopoly on online auctions. Now before you point to a dozen online auction websites, that is meaningless. Just as the existence of Apple and Linux were meaningless in proving Microsoft had a monopoly.
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Being a merchant I don't have to accept Discover Card, American Express or Diners Card if I choose to accept payment with Mastercard.
I, for one, welcome our new checkout overlord. (Score:5, Interesting)
As someone who had the dubious task of integrating the Paypal payment mechanism into a custom checkout process, I welcome this new "Checkout by Amazon" with open arms.
Re:I, for one, welcome our new checkout overlord. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I, for one, welcome our new checkout overlord. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think a competitor to PayPal would be a good thing, but I disagree about the government(s) keeping out of it. PayPal and any other similar service need to be under similar regulation to other financial services, to provide reasonable consumer protection - something PayPal have tried to avoid. There have been numerous complaints in this area over the years and it's one of the main things which has kept me from getting a PayPal account.
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it's one of the main things which has kept me from getting a PayPal account
The government is not required, then. You simply want PayPal to provide better service. You have a choice, which you are currently exercising -- don't use PayPal.
No need for the government's heavy hand.
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i don't think the paypal integration has been that difficult over here, and we run probably one of the largest shops in the world ...
but then again, can't say that paypal is even near perfect just yet and sometimes their innovations are less than wonderful.
competition is a wonderful thing tho :) i hope amazon puts up a nice fight so we all get a better outcome, which ever it is.
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Are you in the US?
Re:I, for one, welcome our new checkout overlord. (Score:5, Interesting)
I totally agree, we just integrated with paypal uk. My complaints are many. Firstly it isn't 1 system it's actually 3 different systems and depending what you want to do you may need to use multiple systems. Also some systems have multiple APIs, none of this is clearly documented, nor is it clearly documented what Cards do not work with the different systems.
Despite claims that it works with most payment cards, the paypal system we were recommended to use won't accept American Express and will only accept newer Maestro cards if you give them an imaginary start date and pre-convert the currency to GBP (we process in dollars).
It's a total joke.
The support service involves ringing a special business helpline that will only work if you ring from a pre-authorised telphone and pretend to be the person who originally signed up for the service and even then if you press the wrong option the support involves getting read out the contents of an online help page.
When you finally do get through to support and you ask them a question, they basically don't even know themselves what will work.
Google Payments / Checkout could work if ... (Score:3, Informative)
If they allowed sellers in countries other than just the US and UK to be involved, until they expand that a bit more (Australia, NewZealand, even Canada?) things could be different.
For now I guess the commissions will just have to go to PayPal and my local merchant provider.
Come on Google, pull your finger out and expand that service.
Re:Google Payments / Checkout could work if ... (Score:5, Insightful)
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For sure there's a lot of work involved, I don't think anyone with a sensible grip on business would expect them to do this overnight, however I've been watching Google Checkout now for quite some time and there just does not seem to be any movements beyond their existing setup. One gets the impression that they got it started and then when "*Meh*, this is boring, let's move along to something shiney!"
Don't forget they already take and give payments to many countries via the AdSense and AdWords programs, ag
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You'd need a universal legal system, not universal currency, to accomplish that goal.
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Considering we haven't even got an amazon.com.au I'm certainly not holding my breath.
gbay (Score:1, Offtopic)
This is *very* good news (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it global ? (Score:3, Insightful)
I realise international banking transfers is a complicated area, but it's one Paypal seems to be miles ahead of it's competitors in at present. Google don't seem to have problems with Adsense/Adwords in this regard though, so it's a bit puzzling to me why Checkout is so limited in who they accept.
Which is a shame really, as it leaves only Paypal and all of its problems that everyone's familiar with.
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Checkout? (Score:2)
Can someone explain to me how this isn't a trademark violation?
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Good question... Perhaps because it's a generic word? Compare to "Word". Technically, "Word" isn't called "Word" but "Microsoft Word".
So the of from Google is called "Google Checkout" and the one from Amazon is called "Amazon Checkout". Of course, I don't know for sure...
What E-Bay did that most people missed.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Subscriptions? (Score:3, Interesting)
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Free money (Score:1)
This isn't about eBay... this isn't like Paypal... (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't use eBay, don't want to use eBay, and frankly wish I could get Paypal to quit telling me about eBay. I still have little interest in Google Checkout. I suppose I might sign up for it some time, but it's not even the same kind of business. Paypal works like a checking account, I can paypal small amounts of money around to anyone else who has a paypal account, they don't have to be set up as an online merchant, they can just take my money and spend it themselves. It's pretty much the online equivalent of cash. If Google Checkout has any comparable capabilities they're sure hiding it... for the end user all they are is another merchant service like the one Yahoo runs, but one that's tied specifically to Gmail and the other Google services. I can maybe see some convenience there but it's nothing like Paypal.
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Yeah you can do that with Paypal, but if you send a small amount of money then the person on the other end won't actually get anything.
If you try to use it as a merchant service and pay with a credit card, probably not, but if you use it as a checking account and send them the money from your Paypal credit balance? They better.
Thank fucking God for Google and Amazon making headway into this space
They're not "in this space" yet. When they get here then we'll talk.
Amazonbay (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Amazonbay (Score:5, Interesting)
Err...yes, because Amazon's last auction site worked so well. Have you noticed that eBay is becoming more like Amazon? Payments to go through eBay's payment processor (PayPal). Greater concentration on fixed price (Buy It Now). Seller based browsing. Amazon had all those things first.
Amazon already competes with eBay in online selling. Do they really need a variable price mechanism as well? It's one of those areas that scales naturally to a monopoly. Sellers want to run single auctions that maximize the buyers (more potential buyers means a higher top bid).
Auctions is actually a niche market. It works best for unique objects, where the seller does not know how much a buyer is willing to pay. One of the challenges for eBay in recent years is that many of the people who have used auctions would really prefer a fixed price setting but have had to use auctions because that was the only place they could find their product.
In far more countries than Amazon and selling through both auctions and fixed price, eBay's earnings are still lower than Amazon. Amazon would be better off launching in a new country (e.g. India or Australia) rather than trying to invade the auction market.
The reason for Checkout By Amazon is simple. Amazon is moving to a model where people can pick and choose what Amazon services to use in selling their product. There's the Amazon Advantage program, where the product is in Amazon's warehouse, discoverable on Amazon's site, paid for through Amazon's checkout system, and shipped by Amazon (possibly bundled with other items). However, if people prefer, they can purchase those services separately:
1. Store in Amazon's warehouse and ship with Amazon's discounts. [amazonservices.com]
2. Discovery through Amazon's sites (if they don't use Amazon's checkout, they can't have a detail page but can still purchase a link from Amazon to their site that appears in search results and on other detail pages [amazon.com]).
3. Pay through Amazon's payment processor. [amazonservices.com] Amazon already had Simple Pay. It used to be called the Honor System. Checkout by Amazon is new only in that one couldn't use it separately previously but had to list the item on Amazon's site.
Amazon is also different from eBay in that it offers listing on defined pages where all listings of a certain product are on the same page. This is the reverse of the auctions model, where every listing is essentially its own product. Discovery is expensive and hard. Payment is straight forward by comparison. As such, if you want to see an eBay competitor, you should look for a company that is competitive in search rather than in payment. Amazon currently does not have that kind of search, and it would be expensive for them to develop it (with no guarantee of success, see A9, where years of development failed to produce results).
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What's so great about an auction? People who want to buy stuff don't know how much they'll end up paying (or even whether they'll be successful), and people who want to sell stuff don't know how much they can expect to recoup for it (they can either run the risk of having to sell $200 worth of kit for 99c, or run the risk of nobody even looking at the auction because it's not "a bargain"). Give me a place I can pay a fair price for an item and that's the end of it, and I'll be happy. Let's leave eBay to the
Re:Amazonbay (Score:4, Informative)
In economic terms, auctions are more efficient. Auctions ensure that people pay the value to them of the product, and that the seller gets the correct price from the market.
If I price a good at $10, and nobody wants to buy it, I sell none, nobody enjoys the product, and I am none the wiser as to the value of the product, other than I know its under $10 (or it may be due to their being zero demand).
An auction makes the *real* value and price of the product immediately apparent to both parties, and allows it to vary over time to capture markets that otherwise would not be satisfied. Rather than suffering from understock or overstock, the price automatically adjusts so that all products get sold, and every slice of the market gets access to the product.
Auction Deoptimization (Score:2)
That's the economic theory. The practice on eBay has often been buyers who are willing to bid up to prices totally out of touch with economic reality. Everybody who shopped on eBay in their early years has had the experience of being outbid by somebody who seemed to have no idea of the actual value of the item.
This overbidding was probably a big reason for eBay's early profitability. Seems to be much less common nowadays, which is probably why eBay is putting so much emphasis on fixed-price se
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Google checkout not found favor? Huh? (Score:2)
I find Google Checkout is accepted at almost every eCommerce site I shop at nowadays - and I usually prefer it over Paypal.
Amazon Flexible Payment Services (Score:1)
Instead of linking to an uninteresting web page with very few details, TFA should link to the webpage describing the service on Amazon :
http://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Payments-Service-AWS/b/ref=sc_fe_l_3?ie=UTF8&node=342430011&no=3440661&me=A36L942TSJ2AJA [amazon.com]
It's much more interesting that what I expected from TFA, it seems to actually be even more flexible and configurable than PayPal :
Examples of possible Payment Instructions include:
* Transaction Amount: Specify fixed
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Forgot to add that they allow developers to provide other merchants potentially competing services :
Every FPS transaction has a sender (party making payments), a recipient (party receiving payments), and a caller (party making the API calls to Amazon FPS). Callers are the same as recipients if the developer is the party receiving funds, but developers can also act as third-party callers enabling a transaction between a sender and a recipient (and taking a cut of transactions if desired).
Overpriced? (Score:2)
Hmmm, Amazon charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transation, and Google Checkout charges 2% + $0.20 per transaction. Why would you use Amazon's service?
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If Amazon's service is available to Canadians? Yes.
As a Canadian, Google checkout is useless to me, I'm stuck with PayPal only.
Microtransactions? (Score:1)
Not holding my breath... (Score:1)
Not meant as a joke, but I wish Ebay would have offered home loans. It would have been the one bank I would have been cheering for to be flushed
Dear Amazon (Score:2)
Make your system work between USA/Canadian buyers/sellers, unlike Google who is limited to the USA and the UK.
A matter of trust (Score:1)