Customers in the United States will be able to use their Venmo accounts to make Amazon purchases starting next year. PayPal, the parent firm of the payment app, announced the agreement in a press release, adding that customers will be able to buy goods from Amazon by using their Venmo balance to pay for them or by withdrawing funds straight from a linked bank account.
- The release: While PayPal did not provide a specific timetable, the release states that the feature will be accessible for Amazon purchases made online and through its app once it is implemented. Amazon now only accepts credit, debit, and gift cards for purchases, though it did join with Affirm earlier this year to offer monthly payment plans for splitting the whole cost of an item. Notably, Amazon does not take PayPal payments directly.
- Options: “We understand our customers want options and flexibility in how they make purchases on Amazon,” Ben Volk, Amazon’s director of global payment acceptance, said in the release. “We’re excited to team-up with Venmo and give our customers the ability to pay by using their Venmo accounts, providing new ways to pay on Amazon.”
- Partnership: PayPal described the partnership as part of a push to “expand the ways that Venmo can be used by both consumers and merchants,” citing an uptick in online shopping during the pandemic as a driving force. According to a survey the company produced in October 2020, 65 percent of Venmo users reported increasing their personal “online purchasing behavior” during the previous six months.
- Features: In response, the app has rolled out features that support this shift, including the ability to pay with QR Codes, which PayPal introduced through its recent partnership with United Airlines. Venmo also rolled out a suite of cryptocurrency services this spring, giving users the ability to buy, sell, and store multiple types of crypto within the app. It also offers a series of educational resources to answer common questions about cryptocurrency.
- Involvement: Amazon’s involvement in the crypto industry may play a role in this new relationship, but the business has dismissed any actual plans to start accepting it as a checkout currency as hearsay. In a comment, PayPal clarified that the announcement was “solely” about the integration of Venmo’s services for Amazon purchases and that the firms “have nothing further to share at this time.”
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