There’s always chatter about how Amazon wants to extend its footing in the payments and transactions space. Today the company introduced Amazon Local Register. Its a new service that seriously puts pressure on the likes of PayPal Here and Square. Amazon undercuts both services on rates and uses its position as the biggest online retailer to make Local Register much more appealing for prospective users.
Interested merchants can sign up today through the Amazon Local Register website. They don’t have to deal with any banks or pay any setup fees. Once the registration is done they can download the app for iOS or Android and purchase the secure card reader for $10. That’s all a vendor needs to get Amazon Local Register up and running.
After they have set it up they can swipe or key in credit and debit cards using their mobile device, though the app is only compatible with a handful of devices such as the Galaxy S3, S4, S5 and the Kindle Fire tablets. The transaction amount will either be deposited in their bank account the next day or it can be immediately used on Amazon.com. The app can also be used to manage taxes, tips, discounts and even to track sales.
Those who sign up before October 31st, 2014 will only pay a 1.75 percent rate on all swiped transactions until December 31st, 2015. After that, and for those who sign up after the aforementioned date, the rate will be 2.5 percent per transaction. That’s still better than the 2.75 percent and 2.7 percent charged by Square and PayPal Here respectively.