I don't get this. Seems like a late entry into a saturated and (at least in Square's case) not that lucrative market. Any insight into why you would do this?
Amazon Local Register
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Re: Amazon Local Register
#112It's a trap. You, owner of a shop, don't do this. Amazon will first analyze all your sales data, they will than attach reviews to your shop and finally they will oblige you to play by their rules or die (banned or killed by bad reviews) and either way they will grow thanks to your hard work. I'm not joking, this is exactly what they have done (and keep doing) with "partners". Amazon is all but transparent and it has…
Do you mean to say that Square is different in this approach? Everyone wants your data and it's the price you pay to obtain this technology.
Square is a payment processor, and does not wear the merchant hat. Even if it sells the data, the merchants acquiring the data still needs to pay, bumping up the cost of business.
On the other hand, Amazon is _both_ payment processor and merchant. First it gets transaction fees (due to its volume, I guess it is paying around 1-2% for card transactions) from merchants, not a lot, but I doubt it really cares or plans to earn money from transactions. Second it gets sales analytics, and third, it can adjust its online strategies to match the trends it sees in this data. I would say #2 and #3 would be the whole point of launching this.
Re: Amazon Local Register
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I'm for technological progress, I prefer to live in an environment where small entrepreneurs can thrive, which requires me to be skeptical when a giant, borderline-monopolistic company comes along with 'new technology' that's true purpose appears to be to subvert small business owners and take their customers.
Wasn't Amazon exactly this for many years?
You don't get to be the underdog forever. There was a very long period there where people hadn't realized that Apple wasn't the struggling underdog vs. Microsoft anymore as well.
Monopolies are bad, and since all the people on HN are the small business owner (or want to be soon), making people aware of what's going to happen is kind of important.
It's also not new: there are players trying to do this type of thing in every industry. You even see it in medicine.
Re: Amazon Local Register
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
In other words Amazon is no different than the existing credit card companies (Visa, MC, AmEx, ect...), the existing merchant services, and the retailers themselves who all collect that data for purposes of selling to third parties and use for in house marketing. Brick and Mortar retailers are concerned about being able to conveniently accept payment and minimizing service charges for the convenience of accepting non…
Obviously Amazon is different, because unlike credit card companies they are in the business of competing with small retailers. Particularly when you consider their "your margin is my opportunity" strategy giving this data to them should be a terrifying proposition for any business owner.
But there are so many places that Amazon does not compete with that there is a market for this. Obviously a small book store might not want to do this but what about restaurants, coffee shops, the plumber that comes to fix your toilet (or any service industry), the local tap room, and so on.
Edit: Sorry, the idea of Amazon opening restaurants, coffee shops or tap rooms (which would also mean they start brewing their own beer) reminds me of this scene from Judge Dredd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFiDoOgRTpk (Now All Restaurants are Taco Bell)
Re: Amazon Local Register
#115What is it with swipe cards in the US? A lot of businesses in the EU don't take them due to security risks and only accept chip-and-pin payments,yet US parties like it's 1991?
The fraud liability shift for swipe cards in USA will be at the end of 2015, so there's some time still left - but such a card reader definitely isn't futureproof, and they'll need a new model after a year or so.
Can you provide any more information about this "fraud liability shift"? To whom is fraud liability shifting? By how much is it shifting? Why would such a shift concern Amazon?
EDIT: TIL retailers will have more liability. I suspect Amazon will find a way to pass that on to the actual retailer. Changes like this have a way of getting delayed in USA, as well.
Re: Amazon Local Register
#116In this game, one of the factors is frauds. The solution provider who is able to keep fraud rate under control will have an advantage.
Right and those two players are google and apple. Phone-present transactions with strong authentication and irrefutability would be far cheaper to process. Google had been screwing the pooch for years with android wallet. They should have owned this market years ago.
Re: Amazon Local Register
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
1.75% is a huge discount.
1.75% may be competitive and better than rates of some merchants receive; however, I had a negotiated rate of .4% for one of my businesses. One of the problems with the entire industry is misinformation, unlevel playing field (inability for your average merchant to negotiate the best rates), and the unscrupulous nature of the sales tactics of the merchant services themselves.
If you don't mind, could you please share how you got such an amazing rate? Were you negotiating on behalf of a huge corporation? Had a lot of sales? Gave them other business?
Re: Amazon Local Register
#118It's a trap. You, owner of a shop, don't do this. Amazon will first analyze all your sales data, they will than attach reviews to your shop and finally they will oblige you to play by their rules or die (banned or killed by bad reviews) and either way they will grow thanks to your hard work. I'm not joking, this is exactly what they have done (and keep doing) with "partners". Amazon is all but transparent and it has…
One business type I can see this making sense for is food trucks, as I don't see amazon going into that business anytime soon if ever. Beyond that I tend to agree with you that giving amazon even more data seems like a horrible idea.
A crêpe van is one of the friendly examples they have in the carousel on that page.
Although why anyone would buy their decorative paper from the back of a van is beyond me.
Re: Amazon Local Register
#119I think it's very interesting that the Amazon phone is not one of the supported devices for this.
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Re: Amazon Local Register
#120Well one more blow to Square, hope they gonna make it through 2014 but the more I see the less I hope :/