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You Might Soon Buy Kindle eBooks With Your Paypal Account

Amazon is reportedly in talks with Paypal to integrate their payment platforms so that Amazon customers will be able to pay using their existing Paypal accounts.

From Bloomberg:

Amazon and PayPal have discussed letting shoppers pay for Amazon purchases using their PayPal accounts, highlighting how the digital payments company can attract new partners since its 2015 split from Amazon rival EBay.

“We have been in conversations with Amazon,” PayPal Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg News. “We’re closing in on 200 million users on our platform right now. At that scale, it’s hard for any retailer to think about not accepting PayPal.”

There are no details to announce, but Schulman said the conversations have focused on “how to use one another’s assets to the mutual benefit of our customers.”

A spokesman for Seattle-based Amazon declined to comment.

Paypal is still just as much of a competitor to Amazon now as it was before it spun off Ebay, or even when Ebay owned Paypal, so this deal might surprise some, but not me.It just makes too much sense.

Both Amazon and Paypal offer a payment processing solution. Paypal’s solution works both direct and on third-party sites, while Amazon’s solution works mainly on external websites.

So yes, these two compete, and you can find both listed as a payment option on sites like Humble Bundle, but they are also out to maximize revenues, which in this case means working with a competitor.

So this deal is going to happen sooner or later.

h\t to The International Indie Author group on Facebook

image by danielbroche

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Comments


Carmen Webster Buxton January 30, 2017 um 12:50 pm

Interesting! Does that mean you won’t need an Amazon account or just that Amazon will accept Paypal for Kindle book purchases? I can’t see how you could get the book delivered without an Amazon account. But if it’s just for payment, then why would Amazon limit it to Kindle books?

Nate Hoffelder January 30, 2017 um 1:03 pm

You’d need both accounts, only now you would not need a credit card at Amazon. Instead your PP account would do.


Purple lady January 30, 2017 um 2:27 pm

I wonder if this means I won’t be forced to use 1click if I pay using PayPal.

Frank January 30, 2017 um 5:01 pm

You are never forced to use 1click, which orders for you without having to go through a few menus. I never use 1click since I like to know what is being used before I order.

This is great for Paypal.

Purple lady January 30, 2017 um 7:26 pm

If you buy any digital items, you are forced to use 1click and you won’t know what you actually paid until after you pay. If you have any credits or coupons you won’t know if they were applied until after you pay.


Mike D January 30, 2017 um 5:47 pm

Frank, Amazon require use of one-click to buy ebooks and downloads. That principle doesn’t mean you can’t use PayPal and indeed Amazon often postpones "Request Money" for an hour or four and consolidates all one-clicks during that postponement thus, I suppose, reducing the number of transaction charges.


Steve Vernon January 31, 2017 um 8:53 am

Another possible use of PayPal would be for funneling Amazon author payments through. PayPal has already figured out the whole "worldwide online payment" problem. With a little fine-tuning Amazon could possibly start making monthly payments to their various indie authors and booksellers directly through PayPal rather than having the hassle of going through individual banking restrictions.

That strikes me as being something that Amazon might consider worth exploring.

Steve Vernon January 31, 2017 um 8:59 am

Then again, that’d be sort of funneling their sales figures and data out through an E-Bay-owned pipeline – so it might not be as simple as I think.

Frank January 31, 2017 um 1:15 pm

PayPal is an independent company, so while eBay owes a large portion of the company stock it is under 50% so they don’t control it.


How to Balance Art and Business with Tara Gentile | The Creative Penn February 6, 2017 um 1:30 am

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