Amazon payment services debut

IDG News Service - Amazon.com Inc. on Tuesday launched hosted e-commerce payment services for merchants that want to outsource all or some of their online transaction processing tasks.

The two new offerings, called Checkout By Amazon and Amazon Simple Pay, are the latest services for businesses introduced by Amazon, which is best known for its massive online retailing operation.

The products join a crowded and diverse market for online payment services, which includes providers such as eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit and Google Inc. with its Google Checkout application.

Amazon described Checkout By Amazon as a "complete checkout solution" equivalent to the one that the company provides at its own online store.

Among its features are Amazon's 1-Click functionality, as well as tools for managing shipping charges, sales tax, promotions, refunds, cancellations and chargebacks.

Merchants can also let buyers access their Amazon.com account information to complete their purchases, as well as extend to buyers the protection of Amazon's "A to Z" transaction guarantee.

On the other hand, Amazon Simple Pay provides a number of payment products and allows customers to access Amazon.com account information on the participating merchant's Web site.

Simple Pay doesn't include the broad transaction-processing features of Checkout By Amazon, such as real-time shipping costs and tax calculations and order-management capabilities.

The fee structure for both products is the same. For transactions of $10 and up, merchants would pay 2.9% of the amount plus a 30-cent fee. Amazon said it will lower the commission percentage if a merchant hits certain payment volume levels on a monthly basis. The fee for transactions lower than $10 is 5% of the amount plus 5 cents.