It appears that Amazon wants its Amazon Pay digital wallet to be used for more than just online payments. According to a new report, the company is making a push to expand Amazon Pay to retail locations such as restaurants and gas stations. It’s said to be offering merchants incentives to start accepting Amazon Pay in their retail stores.
Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is focusing on restaurants, gas stations, and other merchants who won’t view Amazon as a business rival. It’s offering them lower payment processing fees and marketing services to entice them to sign up.
Amazon Pay is primarily used for online transactions right now. If the company is successful in this retail push, it would expand Amazon Pay’s reach far beyond the constraints of the online world. It’s already possible to use Amazon Pay at some retail locations in addition to Amazon Go. This latest push would allow the company to further expand Amazon Pay’s retail acceptance to a lot more merchants.
Amazon hasn’t said anything about this right now so it’s unclear when we may start to see the fruits of these efforts. The company will be a bit late given that similar services from the likes of Samsung and Apple are already well established. The market for digital wallets is still growing in the United States, though, so it’s certainly not too late for Amazon.
. Read more about