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Amazon Local Register

localregister.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Local Register

#21

Post by icebraining »

greghinch wrote: post #13
BrentOzar wrote: post #4

Think of Amazon's role as an online merchant: they've built a 3rd party merchant system where other folks can use Amazon's retail and distribution. Then, they gathered centralized data of what sells, at what prices. They stepped in and started carrying more profitable items themselves. Now, look at their role here: if this takes off, they'll have data on what merchants are selling, for how much, and to whom. These ar…

> If Amazon wanted to start pushing more into local markets (or different kinds of products), they can make a fortune off this data, and that's why they can afford to undercut companies like Square. It's a long term play. Possibly. Alternatively, Amazon seems to operate under a business model something like: 1) enter an existing market with a product offering that is at best the same as the competition 2) undercut sa…

Does it? In what market have they done (3)?

Re: Amazon Local Register

#22

Post by madeofpalk »

Igglyboo wrote: post #5

Can someone explain why manually keyed transactions cost more than swipes? I'm thinking there's more risk involved with those or something along those lines.

Yup! Those are referred to as 'card not present' transactions (just like shopping online) and due to the higher risk, there's a higher charge for processing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_not_present_transaction

Re: Amazon Local Register

#23

Post by brucehart »

aembleton wrote: post #3

Looks like this is just for the US. Do any of you have cashback credit cards that offer >1.75% ?

I used to have an HSBC card that offered 2% cash back on weekend purchases. Capital One acquired HSBC's accounts a few years ago and no longer offers that deal.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#24

Post by mdasen »

mapleoin wrote: post #6
BrentOzar wrote: post #4

Think of Amazon's role as an online merchant: they've built a 3rd party merchant system where other folks can use Amazon's retail and distribution. Then, they gathered centralized data of what sells, at what prices. They stepped in and started carrying more profitable items themselves. Now, look at their role here: if this takes off, they'll have data on what merchants are selling, for how much, and to whom. These ar…

They're only undercutting Square until 2015, after that the fee is 2.75%, same as Square. Read the fine print.

Not quite. The rate after the promo rate is 2.5% which still undercuts Square. The 2.75% rate is for manually Keyed transactions. Also, the promo lasts until 2016, a good amount of time to convince users to switch and then keep them with marginally lower rates.

From the page:

"Sign up by October 31, 2014 to lock in this special rate through December 31, 2015. Pay 2.5% beginning January 1, 2016. Rates apply to all major credit and debit cards."

Re: Amazon Local Register

#25

Post by aed »

hemancuso wrote: post #15

The rate at which Amazon is rolling out products is nothing short of dizzying. Reminds me of Google before Larry came back and retook the reigns. Inevitably they will come to a point where they start shutting down a subset of their enormous product line. It was one thing to have google wave or reader dropped, but when amazon kills some of these lines it'll affect people in real ways. And it will happen. Here is for h…

You may be right, I agree that it's bound to happen at some point. I think one big difference is Amazon is rolling out revenue-producing products and Google was rolling out non-revenue-producing "experiments."

Re: Amazon Local Register

#26

Post by nemesisj »

hemancuso wrote: post #15

The rate at which Amazon is rolling out products is nothing short of dizzying. Reminds me of Google before Larry came back and retook the reigns. Inevitably they will come to a point where they start shutting down a subset of their enormous product line. It was one thing to have google wave or reader dropped, but when amazon kills some of these lines it'll affect people in real ways. And it will happen. Here is for h…

The difference between the Google scenario and Amazon is that from what I can see, Amazon makes money on almost all of the products it's rolling out vs. Google not really directly making money out of most of its products.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#27

Post by qeorge »

Igglyboo wrote: post #5

Can someone explain why manually keyed transactions cost more than swipes? I'm thinking there's more risk involved with those or something along those lines.

In addition to the visible data (the card number, the expiration, and the CVV), there is other information encoded on the stripe that you cannot see (its called Track 2 data).

A swiped transaction will include the Track 2 data, but a keyed one will not. The Track 2 data proves that a physical card was present, which carries a far lower risk of fraud, and thus grants a lower processing rate.

Notably, in the recent Target breach, the Track 2 data was stolen as well. This means the thieves could print up real, swipeable cards.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#28

Post by abecedarius »

icebraining wrote: post #21
greghinch wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Amazon wanted to start pushing more into local markets (or different kinds of products), they can make a fortune off this data, and that's why they can afford to undercut companies like Square. It's a long term play. Possibly. Alternatively, Amazon seems to operate under a business model something like: 1) enter an existing market with a product offering that is at best the same as the competition 2) undercut sa…

Does it? In what market have they done (3)?

They're raising prices on Amazon Prime (and bundling more things I don't want into it, Microsoft-style).

Re: Amazon Local Register

#30

Post by bambax »

This sounds a little like a joke.

Amazon is the biggest competitor brick-and-mortar shops have ever seen; why would shops want to give that kind of information to Amazon, so that it knows in real time what people are buying outside of itself???

A coffeeshop, maybe, but for any other kind of business it sounds crazy.

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