Amazon, the biggest online retailer, just introduced a credit card reader and a mobile payment app, which targets small and medium-sized brick-and-mortar stores. Competing with systems like Square and PayPal, Amazon’s mobile payment service will help businesses handle customer payments on the go.
The new product, called Amazon Local Register, will allow local businesses to accept credit and debit card transactions from a smartphone or a tablet. The technology features a $10 card reader, which attaches to a smartphone, tablet or a Kindle device and in combination with the free app, it will be perfect for on-the-go business owners, who would normally accept only cash and checks. Those could be street artists, massage therapists, pizza delivery staff and so on.
The app, which is available for download at the Amazon app store, the Apple app store and Google Play, works on most smartphones, including the Fire Phone, Apple devics running iOS7, Kindle Fire tablets and select Android smartphones. The card reader plugs into the device’s headphone jack and after registering your account online, you can not only handle mobile transactions, but also to keep track on sales, trends, peak sales times, and many more.
In order to compete with well-established competitors such as PayPal and Square, Amazon offers a low charge rate for every payment for businesses that sign up by October 31 – 1.75% until January 1, 2016. After that period, they will be charged 2.5%. In comparison Squares charges 2.75, while through PayPal, you need to pay 2.7%.
Amazon Local Register will be available only for accepting payments in the United States, at least at first. Also, an American bank account will be required for transferring funds from the Amazon Payments account to the business owner’s bank account.
