Amazon will reportedly challenge Apple with in-store mobile payments

Justin
Sullivan/Getty Images

• Amazon has been quietly working to get brick-and-mortar
  retailers to adopt its mobile payment system for in-store
  purchases,
  The Wall Street Journal reports.
• This move would make Amazon Pay, which is primarily used
  (like PayPal) for online retail purchases, more similar to the
  payment services from rival companies that offer in-store
  options, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and the Starbucks mobile
  app.
• Versions of in-store Amazon Pay are currently used at Amazon
  Go cashierless stores, which use “just
  walk out” technology to let customers pay through its app.

Amazon has found a new target to tackle in its continued pursuits
to dominate retail: in-store mobile payments.

Amazon has been talking with brick-and-mortar retailers to
convince them to adopt Amazon Pay, the e-commerce giant’s online
payment option
The Wall Street Journal reports. The service has so far been touted as a payment
option similar to PayPal for shopping online, but the Journal
reports that Amazon is looking to expand Amazon Pay capabilities.

Amazon reportedly has its eye on restaurants, gas stations, and
other stores that wouldn’t consider Amazon a direct competitor.

Amazon does offer similar mobile-wallet options for in-store
purchases at its brick-and-mortar Amazon Go stores. These stores,
which
started popping up this year, are cashierless and instead use

“just walk out” technology for customers to pay using the
Amazon Go app.

Amazon now operates six of these stores in the U.S., with two
more in Chicago and one in San Francisco coming soon, according
to the Amazon website. Bloomberg reported in September that

Amazon is considering opening as many as 3,000 locations of
its brick-and-mortar Amazon Go stores. 

AP/Elaine
Thompson

Read more:

Amazon reportedly wants to open up to 3,000 cashierless stores to
become one of the largest convenience chains in America

The use of mobile wallets continues
to rise, with recent research predicting that the number of
mobile-wallet users will reach 450 million by 2020. However, the
contactless payment industry is wholly dominated by Apple,

which is predicted to soon account for half of all
contactless payment transactions.

Beyond Apple, many of Amazon’s tech and retail competitors have
already adopted mobile-wallet usage, including Samsung, Google,
Walmart, and China’s WeChat. But while Amazon may be eyeing Apple
as its main competitor in mobile payments, Starbucks has also
shown impressive adoption of its mobile-payments app — the coffee
giant reportedly saw
more people using its payments app than Apple, Google, or
Samsung. 

As of now, it’s still unclear exactly how Amazon Pay would work
in stores, whether through scanning a QR code at checkout a la
Starbucks, or tapping your phone (or smartwatch) such as with
Apple Pay. The Journal reports that Amazon may also hit snags
with what companies are willing to assist a company that’s likely
a direct retail competitor and is credited with
causing a retail apocalypse.