Why wouldnt you just buy a gift card with cash at these stores?
Yeah, I don't get it either. Maybe if you want a smaller denominatioin? I think gift cards start at $25.
Amazon Cash
21–30 of 206 posts
Re: Amazon Cash
#22The typical view of Amazon is that they're putting B&M businesses out of it. What's the value to these stores in doing this? I feel like I'm missing something obvious here.
Well amazon isn't really competing with kum & go (a gas station) or grocery stores (yet). CVS, I would also say not a big competition--you primarily go there when you need a couple of items quickly.
The value to them is they get a cut, of course.
Re: Amazon Cash
#23The typical view of Amazon is that they're putting B&M businesses out of it. What's the value to these stores in doing this? I feel like I'm missing something obvious here.
they can't help themselves? short term gain, long term consequences
Re: Amazon Cash
#24The typical view of Amazon is that they're putting B&M businesses out of it. What's the value to these stores in doing this? I feel like I'm missing something obvious here.
It looks like the retailer is essentially selling a gift card that gets automatically credited to the purchaser's Amazon account via the barcode they present. I suspect the retailer is getting a small cut of the sale just like they do with normal gift cards. Some of those giant gift card stands rent space from stores and I suspect Amazon has a similar arrangement for this.
Re: Amazon Cash
#25I think the idea here is for amazon to allow customers to add cash balances to their amazon account without amazon incurring the 2.9% credit card transaction fee.
I think it's more about getting to the segment of customers who do not have credit cards. There's no way amazon is paying the same fee as anyone else in the world for credit card fees, they're the single biggest e-commerce site and have almost certainly negotiated some substantial deals.
> There's no way amazon is paying the same fee as anyone else in the world for credit card fees
I'm not so sure. Is there any actual evidence of large retailers negotiating down interchange fees? Even Walmart resorted to legislative pressure to regulate fees.
The power of network effects is strong. Retailers are reluctant to drop support for consumer-preferred payment methods and lose that business. That gives card networks a lot of negotiating power even with large merchants.
Re: Amazon Cash
#26If this is implemented as an in-store pickup location with a little terminal that allows you to buy items with cash anonymously, I'd love the concept.
Re: Amazon Cash
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
The use case is that you have cash (literally folding money) in your hand and the store is the place to turn that physical cash into electronic credit in your Amazon Balance.
Maybe I'm being obtuse, but why would anyone want to do that? Could you not use a credit card, debit card, or gift card?
28% of Americans don't have a credit card. 7% don't have a bank account. Those numbers are massively higher in countries that are more cash reliant like India. In 2014 20% of the world was "unbanked", a good search term if you want to do more research.
Re: Amazon Cash
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unbanked use prepaid visa cards to purchase things online. This just gets rid of the "tax" incurred when buying prepaid visa cards. Stat that would be interesting to see is smart phone penetration into this group of people. Also unbanked can purchase amazon gift cards with cash.
I don't know about the US but here in the U.K. prepaid credit cards have all but disappeared.
There is a current growth due to fintech startups like monzo, who are using prepaid cards to test the market
Re: Amazon Cash
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The use case is that you have cash (literally folding money) in your hand and the store is the place to turn that physical cash into electronic credit in your Amazon Balance.
Maybe I'm being obtuse, but why would anyone want to do that? Could you not use a credit card, debit card, or gift card?
What if you don't have any of those things?
Re: Amazon Cash
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The use case is that you have cash (literally folding money) in your hand and the store is the place to turn that physical cash into electronic credit in your Amazon Balance.
Maybe I'm being obtuse, but why would anyone want to do that? Could you not use a credit card, debit card, or gift card?
These people may not have the credit for credit cards or a bank account with a debit card (again, bad credit or maybe even just distrust of the banking system).
As others have pointed out, this is basically buying a gift card and applying it to your account in one step instead of two.