The e-commerce juggernaut said it’s offering a new digital wallet service to its sellers and planning to roll it out more broadly over the “next few months
The new Amazon wallet service is currently available only to a select group of the company’s small business sellers, some of whom have been trying it in recent weeks, according to the post. Amazon Spokesperson Alyssa Bronikowski declined to say how many sellers or which ones are currently using the service.
Amazon’s new offering is an “optional tool designed to give selling partners more control over how much and when to convert their funds in order to help them grow their business operations globally,” Bronikowski said by email.
Fintechs and legacy payments companies alike have been racing to offer consumers a portfolio of financial services through smartphone apps. PayPal, Square parent Block and Google are among the companies that are competing to draw users to their Swiss army knife of financial tools like digital wallets.
Seattle-based Amazon already has been providing its sellers with other payments and financing tools, including business loans; American Express and Visa credit cards, with loyalty program rewards; and currency converter options for sending money worldwide.
A Canadian seller quoted in Amazon’s wallet announcement said that he had been using the new service for “the past few weeks” so apparently it isn’t brand new this week. Bronikowski declined to say exactly when it started.
Separately, the online retailer also accepts digital wallet payments from consumers, including Apple Pay, Mastercard’s Masterpass and Visa Checkout, the company says on its site.
By Lynne Marek on July 26, 2022
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