Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Without fanfare, Amazon.com Inc. last week introduced a trial version of its first digital wallet. The free Android app, known as Amazon Wallet, has been available since July 17 on Amazon’s own App Store and on Google Play. It is also available pre-installed on Amazon’s recently unveiled smart phone, the Fire, which goes on sale starting Friday.
While Amazon has launched a number of closely watched initiatives in payments recently, the new wallet appears to be a modest effort, bearing more resemblance to Apple Inc.’s Passbook app than to more ambitious offerings such as Google Wallet or the mobile carriers’ Isis product.
For the beta version, users can store gift, loyalty, and membership cards but not general-purpose credit and debit cards. The app allows users to enter card data manually or by scanning codes if they appear on the cards. It also allows users to snap photos of the front and back of cards to store for future reference. Another function keeps track of available balances on gift cards issued by so-called supporting merchants, a list that currently stands at 68 chains, including Whole Foods, Staples, and a slew of restaurants. The wallet app can currently track balances on as many as 50 specific gift cards at a time, Amazon says.
Once stored in the PIN-protected wallet, the cards can be more readily applied at issuing stores that have point-of-sale scanners. “The Amazon Wallet can…store loyalty and membership cards for rewards programs and turn those accounts into a barcode or QR code for easy use at select locations,” an Amazon spokesperson tells Digital Transactions News by email. Amazon did not issue an announcement of the wallet. The spokesperson said company executives were not available Tuesday to comment on the new product.
The user’s Amazon Wallet is linked to his online Amazon account, where he can view and manage any cards loaded to the wallet as well as credit and debit cards he uses on the Amazon site. The online page also shows Shop with Points and Amazon Payments stored-value balances.
“We look forward to getting customer feedback on the beta app,” says the spokesperson. Though it’s early, Amazon officials should be pleased. Checked late Tuesday morning, the Google Play listing showed an average rating of 4.5 on a 5-point scale from 11 reviews. Nine of the reviews rated the app at a 5.
“Great, [l]ove being able to keep all my gift cards in one place without my wallet,” raved one early user. Later reviews are appearing to be more sober, praising the wallet while pointing out shortcomings. “Has some work to do,” says one reviewer. “Works great for storing loyalty cards, but still lags way behind features available in Google Wallet.” Yet another user wants the wallet to support Bitcoin.
This latest wallet app comes at a time of uncertainty for such products. Both Visa Inc. and Square Inc. discontinued their mobile wallets in recent weeks, replacing the products with new apps serving narrower audiences or purposes. And the Google and Isis wallets have struggled to win wide acceptance with consumers and merchants.
Amazon, which has offered its users payments and payments-related services at least since 2007, has been the subject of repeated industry speculation about its plans for mobile commerce. In the past year the Seattle-based e-commerce giant has introduced a streamlined version of its basic Amazon Payments service offered to other e-commerce retailers, launched a digital currency called Amazon Coins, and rolled out a service called “Log in and Pay with Amazon” that lets Amazon account holders buy products on other sites by using their Amazon credentials.
