Amazon takes on PayPal with 'Login and Pay with Amazon'

Now merchants can eliminate additional checkout steps with one button

Amazon has never been shy about taking on large competitors, whether it's Apple, Google, or Barnes & Noble. Now it's coming into direct competition with PayPal with the launch of Login and Pay with Amazon, a one-click payment service that will allow consumers to shop on any participating site and pay using their Amazon payment details.

“Amazon has more than 215 million active customer accounts,” said Tom Taylor, VP of Amazon Payments, in a statement. “Login and Pay with Amazon enables companies to make millions of our customers their customers by inviting online shoppers with Amazon credentials to access their account information safely and securely with a single login.”

First of all, can we all take a moment of silence to reflect on the fact that Amazon more or less just revealed how many customers it has? As a company that keeps all growth numbers to itself, that’s kind of a big deal. (Amazon Prime reportedly has 10 million subscribers, which amounts to 4.65% of its total customer base. Interesting.)

But a new payments service is also a big deal.

Just like Amazon’s one-click payment option, users will be able to shop on any participating website and make a purchase by clicking on the Pay With Amazon button, which completes the transaction on the spot without requiring the customer to add further details, like screen names or passwords. Eliminating additional steps means fewer abandoned shopping carts.

Should PayPal be worried? Abso-friggen-lutely. While PayPal has become the standard for easy online payments, so many merchants already peddle their wares on Amazon’s marketplace as third party sellers that Amazon has an instant network in which to establish its payments service.

“So far, the consumer adoption rates that we’ve been seeing with Amazon Payments have exceeded our expectations and we’re excited to see the results once we start offering our customers the bundled solution of Login and Pay with Amazon towards the end of this year,” said Ash ElDifrawi, chief commercial officer of Gogo Inflight Internet, in a statement. “We know that Amazon buyers are highly satisfied with their payment experience on Amazon. We also know through our research that Gogo users want alternative methods of payment.”

Implementing Login and Pay with Amazon on an existing website is as easy as embedding a set of widgets and APIs on the site and integrating them with the back-end system. Login and Pay with Amazon works on websites as well as tablets and smartphones. All purchases are protected by Amazon’s A-to-Z guarantee. 

PayPal just purchased e-commerce payments service BrainTree for $800 million last month. BrainTree allows companies to accept all forms of online payments without the hassle of dealing with payment infrastructure. In July, BrainTree said it was processing $10 billion in payments. 

Maybe a little competition from Amazon will inspire PayPal to clean up its notoriously bad reputation for glitches and poor customer service. 

Amazon generated $61 billion in sales in 2012.