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Amazon Local Register

localregister.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Local Register

#131
post #48

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

Or alternatively Bluetooth. iZettle’s approach is a selfcontained chip+PIN device that communicates with the app on your smartphone wirelessly. The app then handles 3G connection. https://www.izettle.com/gb/card-readers

Of course, Bluetooth. It could still plug into the iPhone audio jack for stability.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#132

1.75% limited of time offer makes me want to vomit. The one thing I like about Square is at least they're not like other CC processors that make the careers HIDING fees from their merchants. Now Amazon is coming out the gate doing this. Many of us are fighting these fees online - even the CC processors like Stripe are at least straightforward with their fees even if they're forced to make them higher than they'd like…

> 1.75% limited of time offer makes me want to vomit.

So Amzn should offer a lower rate, free perhaps? Or are they hiding fees somewhere else? Please you explain your aversion more.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#133

It'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…

Care to back up these wild claims with evidence because I've never seen this happen at Amazon.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Based on my experience with how EU shops approach swipe cards, the shift in the US is from the bank to the retailer, when it comes to responsibility for authorizing the transaction.

At the moment in the EU it's trivial to go to a shop, pay with a swipe card, scribble something on the receipt(most people working at the till are not used to seeing swipe cards so they don't check signatures too well), call you bank saying you don't recognize the charge, they ask the merchant for the copy of the receipt, compare the signature with the one they have, and because they don't match they reverse the charge, leaving the merchant with no goods and no money. So most shops simply don't take swipe cards to stop fraud - with pin-and-chip cards banks cannot reverse payments from merchants, because it's the bank verifying the pin, not the merchant.

My understanding is, that in the US banks cannot reverse payments to merchants,so no retailer has any problem with taking swipe cards, but if that responsibility changes, then merchants won't be happy to accept them anymore.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#135
post #111

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 already has all the infrastructure to deal with this, they can quickly achieve volume to build the readers at low cost (and take a loss in basically giving them away).

Small shop owners are more likely to be familiar with the amazon brand versus square or others so their marketing/promotion is easier.

Amazon very likely has tons of ways they can use the data they collect.

They have opportunities for upsell: shops can buy ads, integrate with amazon on their website, start selling on amazon, etc.

(speculation) Amazon sees threats from other competitors in this space, so they want to suck all the profit out of it.

Note also that the business owner can spend funds on amazon immediately, or wait for funds to arrive in a bank account the next day. So amazon has a chance for extra sales there.

I wonder if there's also a financial angle -- it says funds get deposited the next day, so it doesn't seem like amazon has a chance to sit on the funds for any length of time, but maybe there's some angle I'm not seeing.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#136

It'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…

How is amazon going to undercut my barber or the brewery I go to with this data? It seems like there are plenty of businesses that could benefit from this and not be at risk to the "empire".

Re: Amazon Local Register

#137
post #111

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 also has other services to shops and vendors.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When the liability shift happens, what will change is that if there is an incidence of card fraud, whichever party has the lesser technology will bear the liability. So if a merchant is still using the old system, they can still run a transaction with a swipe and a signature. But they will be liable for any fraudulent transactions if the customer has a chip card. And the same goes the other way – if the merchant has a new terminal, but the bank hasn’t issued a chip and PIN card to the customer, the bank would be liable.

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/02/06/octob...

Re: Amazon Local Register

#139
Interesting to consider in tandem with AmazonSupply - a much bigger play for businesses, and one you hear very very little about. You can (and I'm sure they'd prefer that you do) use your Amazon Local Register proceeds to buy most of what you need to run your business. (Leaving aside restaurants/cafes – outside of AmazonFresh delivery markets anyway.)

http://www.amazonsupply.com/

Forbes had a pretty extensive look a couple months back, the only big public airing it's gotten - http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/05/07/amazons-...

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