Amazon continues to look for ways to further expand its online and offline business, and this time it will do so alongside small and medium-sized businesses. , the online retail giant is preparing launching your own point of sale system created by an internal Amazon team called Santos Project.
The new point of sale for physical stores will carry out online and offline transactions, in addition to integrating Amazon services
Amazon’s new point of sale system would be available to third-party sellers, and could handle transactions in physical stores and online, in addition to integrating Amazon services such as its payment system or its technology of In addition, with this point of sale system merchants could gain inventory analytics capabilities and business performance metrics.
“This would allow small and medium-sized businesses to unify their management of online and offline channels, including inventory, offer Amazon One for contactless payment recognition, and offer a customizable loyalty program that can use Prime benefits,” secured the document.
The next launch of the Amazon point of sale system shows the growing interest in expanding its digital reach to physical stores. With this movement, it seeks to sell software used by merchants to make payments, verify customers and analyze data, which could offer much more valuable information about consumer habits.
On the other hand, the online giant recently announced throughout the United States, and against this background it is not only likely that its own point of sale system will attract small businesses to the marketplace, but also you could even give them access to your same physical locations.
The battle between Amazon and Shopify begins
The launch of the POS (Point of sale) would make a lot of sense for Amazon, which cannot ignore the growing popularity it has achieved Shopify, after the announcement of this Amazon point of sale system. The actions of other large companies in the epayments sector, with this type of functionality such as PayPal or Square also registered drops in their price shortly after the news was known.
Recall that in the case of , which allows manage card payments through mobile devices. It consists of software supported by large financial companies such as MasterCard and Santander () and a small attached card reader that turns any mobile or tablet into a traveling cashier. Thanks to this system, any SME or professional who cannot afford to hire a POS terminal or who are constantly on the move, can offer their customers the possibility of paying by card and even depending on the banking institution, to extend the payment for months without interest.
In the case of Shopify, during the pandemic it had a huge boost, especially among small brick-and-mortar businesses opening up for online sales for the first time. Now faced with the possibility of facing Amazon, the online retail giant that has the ability to create a cheaper option compared to Shopify, its stability is in danger. This may be the start of a long war as it is still not entirely clear if there could be a winner and Shopify may still have an ace up their sleeve and release new updates.
In your case, Shopify’s POS app offers sellers a good number of features that make it a useful alternative to make your online and offline sales compatible, such as allowing customers to redeem personalized discounts, refund purchases made in the online store, accept two or more forms of payment in a single transaction and, of course, have an external card reader.
Amazon’s second attempt to integrate a point of sale for physical stores
In fact, this is not the first time that Amazon has tried to launch a similar system that works as a point of sale for physical stores: In 2014 the company announced, that allowed local businesses to accept credit and debit card payments from a smartphone or tablet, and track the growth of their business, in addition to offering Amazon customer service, all under a 2.5% processing fee. Although the card reader was compact and easy to use, two years after its launch it was no longer available.
One of the reasons why this service did not have the expected success could be its lack of profitability. The mobile card reader business mainly operates on the minimum margins earned through the processing fee, and by minimizing it, Amazon was most likely losing a fair amount of money. Amazon likely intended to make up for that loss by gaining a massive user base, however, the reader did not become popular enough to sustain the business.
It remains to be seen how Amazon’s new point-of-sale system for physical stores works and if it now manages to address these and other problems that could arise for the online retail giant, and compete directly with Shopify. You’ll make it?
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