Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Amazon Payments

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Available in
  
English

Website
  
pay.amazon.com

Parent
  
Amazon.com

Commercial
  
Yes

Amazon Payments httpsletstalkpaymentscomwpcontentuploads20

Type of business
  
Subsidiary of Amazon.com

Headquarters
  
Seattle, Washington United States

Amazon payments merchants


Amazon Payments, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com that provides a means to process transactions online. Launched in 2007, Amazon Payments uses the consumer base of Amazon.com and focuses on giving users the same checkout experience available on Amazon.com.

Contents

Amazon Payments has several products for consumers, businesses, and developers.

Online purchases

Amazon Payments is a way for customers to purchase goods and services from US-based websites using the payment methods in their Amazon.com accounts, such as their Visa or MasterCard. (Currently, Amazon.com and Amazon Payments will not accept payment methods such as PayPal or Google Wallet.) At participating vendors, which include Patagonia and Jockey, users can check out using their Amazon account information without needing to re-enter credit card numbers or shipping addresses. Users can also check out with Amazon's 1 Click.

Other discontinued Amazon consumer payment products

  • Amazon TextBuyIt is an SMS-based service which allows users to find items, check prices, or purchase items using their cellular or mobile device. As of October 19, 2011, TextBuyIt has been discontinued.
  • Amazon WebPay is a free service to send or receive money using an e-mail address through the Amazon Payments web page. A US Social Security Number and US billing address are required for activation of WebPay. The service was shut down October 13, 2014.
  • Amazon TextPayMe was a service similar to WebPay, except users can use SMS messages to complete the transaction. The premise behind the service was to allow users to pay each other instantly and securely, without having to carry change or remember IOUs. The service was deprecated in late 2011 and is no longer available.
  • Amazon PayPhrase allowed customers to check out by typing their PayPhrase and their PIN without having to enter any shipping or credit card information. It was accepted at Amazon.com as well as at certain retailers, including Buy.com and J&R Music and Computers. PayPhrase's claim of being additionally secure was controversial. Amazon PayPhrase was discontinued on February 20, 2012.

    • Amazon Pay

    Amazon Pay enables Amazon customers to use the payment methods stored in their Amazon.com account to pay for goods and services on participating merchant’s web shops. With Amazon Pay, the full order process is managed by the Seller. Sellers who use Amazon Pay will need to implement Amazon Pay’s APIs to verify the Buyers payment method, capture the funds and close the order. Amazon Pay can be integrated by the merchant either with the help of a developer or by implementing integrators that offer automated solutions.

    Checkout by Amazon

    Checkout by Amazon (CBA) is an e-commerce solution that allows US-based web merchants to accept Amazon account information and use Amazon for payment processing. CBA can manage several aspects of the transaction including order processing, promotional discounts, shipping rates, sales tax calculation, and up-selling. Depending upon the needs of the merchant, CBA can be integrated into the merchant's systems with manual processing (through Seller Central) or through SOAP APIs or downloadable CSV files. CBA also claims to reduce bad debt because of Amazon's fraud detection capabilities.

    Amazon Simple Pay -- Discontinued

    Amazon Simple Pay (ASP) was a set of payment-only products that allowed US based web merchants to accept Amazon account information and use Amazon for payment-only processing. ASP differed from CBA in that ASP did not handle additional capabilities associated with order processing such as promotions, tax & shipping, and so on. Amazon Simple Pay was discontinued effective June 1, 2015.

    Amazon Flexible Payments Service -- Discontinued

    Amazon Flexible Payments Service was an Amazon Web Service that allowed the transfer of money between two entities. The service was launched as a limited beta in August 2007, and later in February 2009 was promoted to General Availability, but was retired on June 1, 2015.

    GoPago technology acquisition

    Amazon in 2013 acquired GoPago’s technology (mPayment) and hired their engineering and product teams. Amazon was interested in the mobile payment business. GoPago’s app allows shoppers to order and pay for goods and services before they arrive at a business.

    Security

    In September 22, 2010, Amazon published a security advisory regarding a security flaw in its Amazon Payments SDKs. This flaw allows a malicious shopper to shop for free in web stores using those SDKs. Amazon mandated all web stores to upgrade to its new SDKs before Nov. 1, 2010. Amazon acknowledged security researcher Rui Wang for finding this bug. The detail of the flaw is documented in the paper "How to Shop for Free Online - Security Analysis of Cashier-as-a-Service Based Web Stores" by Rui Wang, Shuo Chen, XiaoFeng Wang, and Shaz Qadeer.

    References

    Amazon Payments Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA