How Amazon Pay Enhances Customer Experience: Insights from 5 Leading Brands

It’s no surprise that Amazon is a major player in the ecommerce space.

With more than 310 million active customer accounts worldwide, Amazon is considered one of the largest and most valuable brands in the world.

And for many, Amazon is the go-to place to shop for just about anything at any time. Our 2018 Omnichannel Buying Report revealed that 78% of global consumers made a purchase on Amazon in the last six months.

The expanse doesn’t stop there. Websites with Amazon Pay added allow users to pay using their Amazon account, which provides a quick and streamlined buying experience by eliminating the need for inputting your credit card, mailing address, and other information.

Having made its debut in 2007, Amazon Pay is no stranger to the game.

• In 2016, Amazon reported in an interview with PYMNTS that 33 million people in 170 countries had used Amazon Pay to make a purchase. Nearly a third of the transactions made by those customers were done via a mobile device, with an average transaction size of $80.
• Active merchants grew more than 120 percent year over year in 2016, while Amazon quickly expanded into France, Italy, Spain, and then India in 2018.
• Amazon Pay has no intentions of slowing down, either. Midway through 2017, Amazon announced Amazon Pay Places, adding the option to pay using Amazon into brick-and-mortar stores and restaurants.

Amazon Pay Quick Facts (by Tearsheet)

• In 2016, more than 33 million customers in 170 countries used Amazon Pay to make a purchase.
• Payment volume nearly doubled in 2016, reaching peak volume on Nov. 28, when customers in the U.S. and the U.K. were offered Cyber Monday deals.
• Over half of Pay with Amazon customers are Amazon Prime members, who are known to spend more. (A report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found that Prime members spent $1,300 per year compared to $700 for non-Prime members.)
• Active merchants grew 120 percent between 2015 and 2016 as Amazon Payments expanded support for new areas, including government payments, travel, digital goods, insurance, entertainment, nonprofits and charities.
• The average Pay with Amazon purchase was $80 in 2016, and the largest single transaction that year was $40,000.
• A Forrester Research poll last year of retailers found that 58 percent were interested in Amazon Pay but had no plans to roll it out in the next 18 months. Another 38 percent said they were not interested in it at all. By contrast, 76 percent of retailers polled had either already added Apple Pay or were planning to do so.

When it comes to online shopping, one of the of the greatest pain-points for shoppers is the complexity around detail input.

From a study conducted by ComScore

Amazon Pay alleviates this friction by allowing customers to skip over their credit card details and shipping address, simply paying by inputting their Amazon login details.

The tides of mobile shopping are turning as different demographic groups enter the age of shopping online.

After surveying nearly 3,000 global consumers, we discovered that Gen Z shoppers are 2X more likely to complete an online purchase using a mobile wallet like Apple Pay, Amazon Pay or Google Pay than the average global consumer.

As the world shifts to a more online environment, this trust and familiarity with mobile applications will only continue to grow.

Amazon Pay Usage Statistics (Graph by BuiltWith):

Amazon Pay installations and usage grew rapidly in mid-2016 across top 10,000, top 100,000, and top 1,000,000 websites on the internet.

But for retailers, adding yet another payment option at checkout is a serious decision.

What could go wrong?

• Too much of a good thing: from a user experience standpoint, presenting too many options to the shopper may result in choice paralysis.
• The fees associated with alternative payment options may skim at your bottom line.
• Information security remains a constant worry of online shoppers. In their eyes, each payment option could open up a door to a breach or hack.

So, why Amazon Pay? How does Amazon Pay work? and what are other retailers saying about it?

That’s what we set out to uncover.

What is Amazon Pay?

Amazon Pay is a payments processing service that allows shoppers to use their Amazon account to purchase at other online stores.

Instead of manually typing in their credit card number and shipping/billing addresses, the checkout process uses the details from the shopper’s Amazon account.

This results in customers spending more time shopping and less time checking out.

Amazon Pay Fees

Amazon Pay fees are transaction-based and consist of two parts: a domestic processing fee and an authorization fee.

• Domestic Processing Fee: 2.9% (3.9% if payment is issued outside of the U.S.)
• Authorization Fee: $.30

Payments are also subject to applicable tax.

Customers who use Amazon Pay are automatically protected under the Amazon A-to-Z Guarantee.

There are additional fees and policies around refunds, pay places, and charitable transactions.

Visit the Amazon website to learn more.

These Brands Make it Big with Amazon Pay

Online stores using Amazon Pay and BigCommerce are seeing more and more customers choose Amazon Pay over other payment methods due to the flexibility on different devices and the preexisting trust with the Amazon platform.

We sat down with several BigCommerce merchants and learned about how they use Amazon Pay to ramp up their sales.

1. Mountain Crest Gardens sees more than 15% of 2018 orders use Amazon Pay.

Experience Mountain Crest Garden’s site.

Since 1995, family-owned Mountain Crest Gardens has expanded their succulent offerings to over 650 different varieties.

Their VP, Matts Jopson, weighs in on how Amazon Pay has changed the way their customers shop.

Why did you add the Amazon Pay button?

What were your results?

2. Serious Shops benefits from a streamlined checkout process… and more.

Experience SeriousPuzzle’s site.

Serious Shops is a collection of distinctive and unique products like puzzles, plush toys, and specialty beverages.

To keep up with the ecommerce shuffle, Co-President Adam Moore is always looking for ways to streamline and secure the checkout experience.

How was the Amazon Pay button implementation process?

Would your recommend Amazon Pay to other stores?