Amazon looks to launch own-brand credit card scanner

Thursday, August 7, 2014 - 11:09 by Mike Price

Amazon may soon join the growing group of companies that are attempting to corner the market for real world credit card payments, according to the Guardian.

Rivals, like the eBay-owned PayPal, have already made similar manoeuvres in recent years, but now leaks have revealed that Amazon is in the process of developing an own-brand scanner, that will allow people to make and receive payments while they are on the move.

Amazon has had a thriving marketplace for many years, allowing third party traders to sell their wares through its e-commerce channels and ensuring that millions of people have access to safe shopping online across a wider range of goods than would otherwise be possible.

The idea in this instance is to let retailers integrate Amazon-style payments in-store, with the credit card readers designed to be compatible with the range of Kindle Fire tablets, so that the e-commerce giant has a decent amount of control over the whole process.

This means that in the near future, consumers could start to see tablet-brandishing shop assistants at bricks and mortar outlets, each of whom will be capable of completing a transaction for a customer while they are on the shop floor, rather than having to head to a dedicated till kiosk.

Amazon already has its own digital wallet service to rival those offered by Google and PayPal, while it is also interested in creating a platform that lets individuals transfer money between each other. So its ambitions in the payments market are fairly broad.

Ultimately, this could be advantageous for customers, because it means that you can keep your account for safe shopping online with the same retailer, while carrying out both e-commerce and high street transactions. This might make even more sense if you are concerned about keeping your card details safe.