Amazon is taking on PayPal with a new service that lets online shoppers use their log-in details to make purchases on other e-commerce sites.

Sites that sign up to the ‘Login and Pay with Amazon’ system will get access to widgets and APIs so that they can add a button at the checkout which gives customers the option to pay by entering their Amazon usernames and passwords. The move is a direct challenge to PayPal, which has long dominated the online checkout. As the world’s biggest e-commerce site, with 215 million active customers, Amazon says that the system benefits customers by eliminating the hassle of having to register at multiple sites, remembering ever-growing numbers of logins.

Merchants benefit because customers are less likely to abandon purchases, while the system also helps replace ‘guest checkouts’ with ‘recognised customers’, meaning that firms can track orders and purchase history detail, and offer special discounts.

However, Amazon will not share card details with participating retailers. It will also charge a fee for each transaction, although there is no monthly charge and free fraud protection is thrown in.

Tom Taylor, VP, Amazon Payments, says: “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.”

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Source: virtualmining.com