If you have a Web site to sell books directly to customers, you might want to check out the “Pay Now” widget Amazon has introduced for its new payment system.
Amazon is still beta-testing this new payment system, which it calls the Flexible Payment Service (FPS). I think it could evolve into quite a competitor to PayPal.
It sure beats sending customers to Marketplace, where you pay the 15 percent commission or (even worse) the customer decides to buy from a competing seller.
You receive an e-mail each time someone pays using FPS, and you can also retrieve your orders by logging into your account. If you want to use this, you’ll still need to sign up for a business Amazon Payments account. Believe it or not, an Amazon Pro-Merchant account doesn’t automatically get you in the door.
Fees for FPS depend on the transaction amount and the payment method:
For Transactions >= $10:
- 1.5% + $0.01 for Amazon Payments balance transfers
- 2.0% + $0.05 for bank account debits
- 2.9% + $0.30 for credit card
For Transactions < $10:
- 1.5% + $0.01 for Amazon Payments balance transfers
- 2.0% + $0.05 for bank account debits
- 5.0% + $0.05 for credit card
Here’s more information on the Amazon Web Services blog.
Related posts:
3 Comments
What is the Business Amazon Payments Account? Is there a cost? Advantages? Disadvantages? Your link sends me straight to signing up–I’ve learned to never sign up so quickly w/o researching what I’m getting into, especially when the website already has my credit card number like Amazon.
If the business account involves any additional payments, the FPS has a ways to go to be competitive to Paypal. At least w/Paypal, anyone can send payments anywhere w/o having a business-level account, although payment amounts (and types I believe?) are limited.
My understanding is there is no setup fee or monthly fee for a business account. So then any customer with an Amazon account could pay you immediately on your Web site. Or (I assume) they could enter their credit card on your site and pay, similar to the way it works now with PayPal.
Is my math wrong or is their cost of taking a credit card is almost 50% more expensive than Google Checkout. What’s up with that?
Google checkout – 2% + $0.20 per transaction
Amazon FPS – 2.9% + $0.30 for credit card
They cost more than Google Checkout for any transaction worth more than 5$ which is most transactions with shipping costs today.
Did they think we wouldn’t notice?
Ryan
Used Is Better