Amazon Makes It Easier for Everyone to Buy Groceries
Amazon is making it easier for any consumer to pay cash for groceries or other online purchases.
The retailer has launched Amazon PayCode, a new checkout option that will allow online shoppers without bank or credit cards to pay for Amazon.com purchases at one of 15,000 Western Union locations.
This is how it works: Instead of using a credit or bank card to pay for online purchases, shoppers can instead choose the PayCode option at checkout on Amazon.com. They then receive a QR code they can take to a Western Union to pay for the items they wanted to buy. According to Amazon, 80% of Americans live within 5 miles of a participating Western Union.
“We’re constantly innovating to improve the shopping experience on behalf of our customers, and are proud to expand Amazon Paycode to customers in the U.S.,” said Ben Volk, director, payments at Amazon. “Customers have told us they love the convenience of paying in cash. Together with Western Union, we’re able to offer customers more shopping choices, enabling them to pay for their online purchases in a way that is convenient for them.”
Previously, Amazon had serviced the unbanked population through the retailer's Amazon Cash service, which allows shoppers to add funds to their Amazon accounts at CVS, Rite Aid and 7-Eleven locations. Amazon Cash is now available in more than 100,000 cash-loading locations nationwide.
“As one of the world’s largest digital and physical money movers, we’re innovating our service to give customers more access and choice,” said Khalid Fellahi, president, consumer money transfer for Meridian, Colo.-based Western Union. “We’re embracing the complexity of a world where cash and digital payments are likely to coexist far into the future. We are providing easy solutions for customers who want access to the convenience of online shopping but prefer to pay in person.”
Seattle-based Amazon operates more than 470 stores under the Whole Foods Market banner in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company lands in eighth place on Progressive Grocer’s Super 50 list of top grocers in the United States.
