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Amazon Local Register

localregister.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Local Register

#121

Post by jessaustin »

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #53

Ah, more 90's payment technology from the US. It's becoming a bit of a running joke. (Also, extremely annoying when you live in a city with lots of American tourists that think you can still pay that way in 2014.) Why on earth would you still develop new services for something that is so outdated and has been so completely broken and discredited even my 72 year old mother knows it's unsafe?

Security is a process, dude. Chip'n'pin has had its issues as well. (Issues which in some jurisdictions have been passed on to consumers. Fun!) The marketing efforts have certainly been more successful in Europe than in USA, however. I guess maybe we'll just have to bring more cash, or perhaps maybe vacation in more enlightened locales.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#122

Post by sparkman55 »

Another card reader that plugs into the audio port.

I'd like to include one of these card readers into my own mobile app; has anyone had success using an SDK for integration? CardFlight seems like it would work, but it's a bit expensive...

Re: Amazon Local Register

#123

Post by bentcorner »

MadManE wrote: post #69

I think it's very interesting that the Amazon phone is not one of the supported devices for this.

Although not unsurprising. Once corporations get large enough you get this sort of desynchronization. Maintaining product development secrecy while also ensuring internal teams have aligned goals can be difficult.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#124

Post by twistedpair »

hemancuso wrote: post #37
aed wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

I agree with that to a point. But unless these products are profitable it doesn't really matter if they produce revenue. Folk long-argued that it was valuable for Google to have all of these free products because it kept them in the Google ecosystem. They were spending more time on Google, which had real value. The problem is the cost that comes with lack of focus. Exploding headcount. Unclear corporate vision. When…

> I'd love to see Amazon spend real effort on making AWS easier to use [for people who are not deeply steeped in AWS already, it's hard].

That's the beauty of the API. There are already various vendors that do just this on top of it. The funny thing is, if you're a big guy too, say 10K instances, you also need to use 3rd party tools since the AWS UI can't handle that case either. But since everything is an API call you can build your business by making AWS better for hire. Then again, better hope your idea isn't killed off overnight when AWS does add it as a new feature.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#127

Post by ig1 »

People seem to be very confused at to who the target market is here. This isn't about bricks-and-mortar retailers switching to use Amazon as a payment mechanism, it's about providing a payment services for the (largely) local service vendors who sell their services via Amazon Local (Amazon's daily deal platform).

Powering the payments system will give Amazon the data to do far more dynamic pricing (something which they have a lot of expertise in) for their vendors on Amazon Local which is a win for both the vendors and Amazon.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#128

Post by dminor »

webXL wrote: post #87
dminor wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1.75% is a huge discount.

Only if you sign up by November, and "1.75% per swipe until January 1, 2016". It's 2.5% after that. I guess you could switch back, but by that time Amazon could have already used your data against you. No such thing as a free lunch!

I'm picturing the conversation like this:

You: "The credit card fee is 1.75% until 2016, but Amazon can use your data against you."

Coffee shop owner: "I can add .75% to my bottom line for a year?"

You: "Yes, but Amazon can use your data against you."

Coffee shop owner: "I sign up where now?"

Re: Amazon Local Register

#129

Post by will_brown »

pm90 wrote: post #117
will_brown wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

In the scheme of things it was probably a combination of many things. I am a lawyer; the account was for the law firm (not a large corporation); on the scale of things I would not say a lot of sales but the sale price per transaction was ~$150-$1500; I think above all being knowledgeable about the competition and the time/willingness to negotiate.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#130

Post by icebraining »

ape4 wrote: post #48

Using the audio jack like Square. Isn't there a way yet to use digital like USB yet.

Using the audio jack allows them to make a very dumb, very cheap reader. All you need is a magnetic head (like those in cassette decks) and a maybe a couple of basic components.

See the disassembly of the Square reader: http://cosmodro.me/blog/2011/mar/25/rhombus-square-iskewedi/

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