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    Now 'Pay with Amazon' for third party transactions

    Synopsis

    While Flipkart is engaged in a tussle with ICICI Bank for its payment platform, Amazon India has also launched its own payment option.

    ET Bureau
    BENGALURU: Not just for transaction on its own platform, online marketplace Amazon India wants users to 'Pay with Amazon' on third-party websites as well. Offering instant cashbacks and refunds, Pay with Amazon has tied up with 25 online brand stores. The brands include Crocs, Sennheiser, Café Coffee Day and others. Pay with Amazon is also partnering with smaller merchants on-boarding platforms such as Kartrocket and Zepo to integrate an option for payment using instruments like saved card details and pre-paid balance on Amazon for checkouts.
    Amazon is also in talks with app-based consumer businesses in the online food aggregation, travel, ticketing and entertainment space for its broader payments play.

    Amazon India has been working on its payment product over the last one year and had hired IDFC Bank's chief digital and data officer, Sriraman Jagannathan, as vice-president to head the payments vertical. The company had also acquired payment gateway and mobile wallet company Emvantage in February 2016. Earlier restricted to a gift-card option, the payments vertical at Amazon India has now opened up options for individuals to pay via the gateway for small transactions. Customers can load Rs 10,000 at a time on Amazon Pay Balance and can add Rs 50,000 overall.

    "Through our partnership with banks, we have reduced payment friction by improving the reliability of the two-factor authentication, thereby increasing convenience for customers transacting on mobile or on patchy networks," said Jagannathan. Pay with Amazon has integrated its system with SBI, HDFC, ICICI, Citibank and others to reduce friction in transaction.

    He added that the move banning high denomination currency notes by the Indian government led to a by the Indian government push for user adoption on the digital transaction side and product development for Pay with Amazon. Demonetisation also saw transactions jump multifold for digital wallet players like Paytm and MobiKwik.

    As part of the recently concluded sale at Amazon India between January 20 and January 22, the platform was incentivising users to transact using Amazon P Balance for 15% cashbacks. "We want users to transact even nominal amounts as low as Rs 250 for self-use to experience the payment. It is also an important leg for the sale," said Jagannathan.He added that the payments vertical will also use the data for matching consumers and banks for credit requirements going ahead.

    The sale period saw 30x growth in usage of Amazon Pay Balance with users adding money to the wallet, and the number of new users grew by 360% during the sale period.

    Rival Flipkart had acquired UPI-based payments company PhonePe in April and enabled payments through the wallet on the Flipkart platform in August. The PhonePe app has stopped all UPI-based payments on the Flipkart platform in an ongoing tussle between ICICI and the app for restrictive practices.
    The Economic Times

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