Helga VasilevskyWhether you’re selling on Amazon as a third-party seller or you’ve opened your own store, the demand for payment options will become apparent quickly (as well as the demand for automated accounting). The good news is that there are various ways to accept payments on Amazon. The bad news is that each option has its own drawbacks and limitations.
This post will provide you with the information you need about how to receive money on Amazon and learn alternative ways to use PayPal.
Here’s what you’ll learn about KPI reports:
1. Introduction to selling online: the best Amazon payment options (excluding PayPal)
2. What is Amazon Pay? Is it a good PayPal alternative?
3. Can you use PayPal on Amazon?
4. How can Amazon accept PayPal? Alternative methods
- Create PayPal cash card
- Can you use a PayPal credit card?
- PayPal with gift cards: buy an Amazon gift card to pay
- Using Venmo
5. Affirm Amazon: how does the “buy now pay later” model work?
6. Tricks for selling on Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, and eBay [without PayPal]
Introduction to selling online: the best Amazon payment options (excluding PayPal)
Amazon is one of the largest shopping destinations online. It has over 300 million active users ordering as many as over 1 million items a day in the peak season (during the holiday rush).
Starting an Amazon store may be a great solution whether you decide to expand your business or start selling online from scratch. Selling on Amazon can be very profitable, but it does take work. Receiving payments will be difficult if you’re not set up to accept, process, and account for them.
That’s why we want to take the time to explain your options for payment processing on Amazon.
Want to automate your Amazon accounting? Check out how you can auto-connect Amazon with QuickBooks.
List of Amazon’s payment options
There’s a vast variety of payment options offered to Amazon sellers because not every buyer will want to make a purchase with the same payment method. If you’re looking to sell on Amazon, you might be wondering what payment options are available for buyers and merchants.
Here’s a quick rundown of the Amazon’s options you’ll have:
- Credit and debit cards. Here you can always find the full list of the cards accepted on Amazon.
- Amazon Pay. It’s a payment system that offers businesses a built-in checkout option for all online buyers with an Amazon account.
- Payment service providers (or PSPs). Your Amazon store needs to be assigned either to your bank account or to a bank account provided to you by an approved PSP as a deposit method. Amazon doesn’t allow disbursements from other payment providers.
- Gift cards. Buyers can purchase a range of Amazon gift cards from different brands including Apple, Google Play, Visa, and Amazon gift cards. Gift cards also step up as a solution for paying with third-party providers, since Amazon doesn’t support many of them, for example, PayPal.
- Amazon Store Cards. Amazon accepts its own credit cards, including the Amazon.com Platinum Visa Card, Amazon Prime Store Card, Amazon Secured Card, and Amazon Prime Secured Card.
- Pay by Invoice. A buy now and pay later option for businesses on Amazon with 30-day payment terms and no upfront interest or fees.
What is Amazon Pay? Is it a good PayPal alternative?
Amazon Pay is Amazon’s own payment system developed by the marketplace itself. This online service allows small businesses to give customers a chance to choose their preferred way of payment and allows processing payments securely on the site.
📌 Note: With Amazon Pay, customers can not only buy products from third-party sellers and vendors on the marketplace but they can use their Amazon Pay balance to shop on other websites as well – not just on Amazon.
Advantages of Amazon Pay for online sellers
As Amazon continues to grow, so does the opportunity for independent sellers to reach customers directly. This is especially true with Amazon Pay. However, it can be challenging for sellers to integrate a new payment system into their shopping cart and other back-end systems. Fortunately, there are many advantages of using Amazon Pay as an e-commerce seller.
Here are some of them:
It’s a secure way to accept payment from all buyers with Amazon accounts
Amazon takes care of establishing trusted relationships with buyers all over the globe so that you as a business owner don’t have to worry about this. A simple and trusted checkout experience that’s recognized by hundreds of millions of Amazon shoppers will add credibility to your store.
It’s free and has no extra fees
Using Amazon Pay doesn’t add any merchant fees to the sale: no transaction fees, membership fees, currency conversion fees, foreign transaction fees, or any other fees – your money is safe.
Please note that some fees can be added on the side of the card issuer (for example, a foreign transaction fee if shopping takes place in a country different from the site the card was issued by).
It supports a variety of payment methods including credits cards and debit cards
Amazon Pay accepts credit and debit cards. The credit cards currently accepted include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, and JCB. The Amazon Gift card is also available for use with selected merchants.
It’s scalable and allows you to sell more on other sites as well
To an independent seller, this means you offer Amazon Pay as a payment gateway in your own online shop or on other marketplaces. For example, this method will work for the Shopify Amazon cross-platform integration.
Can you use PayPal on Amazon?
Can you use payPal on Amazon? I bet this question troubles millions of minds.
Well, using PayPal as your checkout method is not currently an accepted way to pay, the major reason for that being a historically close partnership between PayPal and eBay, the biggest competitor of Amazon. Another reason why Amazon does not offer PayPal as a payment method at checkout for shoppers is that Amazon Pay also competes with PayPal as a payment gateway. So the direct answer is no—but all is not lost.
Although it is not currently possible to use PayPal directly on Amazon, if you have a PayPal account, you could resort to workarounds that will allow you to pay with PayPal on Amazon.
How can Amazon accept PayPal? Alternative methods
There are some alternative ways you can use Amazon – PayPal indirect integration:
Create PayPal cash card
You can request a PayPal Cash Card, which is actually just a debit card. If you have a Business account, you can apply for the PayPal Business Debit Mastercard.
It’s completely free and all that needs to be done is to request your personal PayPal Cash Card on the PayPal website.
You can use PayPal Cash Card to make payments that are drawn directly from your PayPal balance. Once the PayPal Cash Card is on hand, you can use it as a payment method on Amazon.
📌Note: Pay attention that PayPal can charge you some fees when adding money to the account.
Can you use a PayPal credit card?
No, not anymore.
Unlike PayPal Cash Card, PayPal’s Key method used to be a virtual credit card with actual card number, expiration date and security code. The customers could use this PayPal Key card when buying online without waiting for a real plastic card arrival. The downside was that not every PayPal user could create such a PayPal Key.
This option is no longer available due to the fees percentage and issues with federal tax payment processors.
PayPal with gift cards: buy an Amazon gift card to pay
Your customers can buy Amazon’s gift cards using their PayPal account and then they can use this gift card to purchase your goods.
Using Venmo
The list of indirect options to use PayPal on Amazon has been recently updated with Venmo, a mobile app allowing P2P (peer to peer) payments and money transfers. It’s owned by PayPal and surely can be linked to your PayPal account. In turn, Venmo can be easily connected to your Amazon account, which enables using PayPal to make Amazon payments. But you need to make sure you have the latest version of the Venmo app installed on your phone.
Affirm Amazon: how does the “buy now pay later” model work?
Buy now and pay later is a payment model allowing customers to pay over time without finance changes or paying interest. Those with Amazon business accounts can use the Pay by Invoice service. But what about all other Amazon’s shoppers?
The BNPL is an alternative to Amazon payments, the option is really close to loans in its definition. Customers can now buy your goods when they’ve fallen in love with them even if they don’t have the whole budget right away. They will pay in small installments later. For merchants, it means more possibilities to catch clients while they’re “hot” and close the deal. On the not-so-bright side, this option brings delays in payments and a certain level of operational inconvenience due to the negative cash flow in your bank account.
Tricks for selling on Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, and eBay [without PayPal]
Trying to reach out to as many customers as possible, you might decide to start selling online not only on Amazon but on other popular marketplaces too, such as Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, and eBay.
When your business is present on several e-commerce sites simultaneously, you might wonder if there are ways to somehow integrate these platforms, or at least share some valuable information between them to optimize your business processes.
There are two integration tricks we can share with you.
1. Shopify Amazon integration
For maximum Shopify Amazon integration, try adding the Amazon Pay button to your Shopify online store. Enabling this payment option won’t require any programming and will be quite easy.
Just like PayPal or any other external gateway, this system is very easy to add to your site. Buyers with an Amazon account can use their credentials to pay you quickly, without having to add any information manually.
The marketplace will not share the full credit card, debit card, or bank account data with any parties that accept Amazon Pay. The merchant only receives the information that is required to complete and support a transaction. This information usually includes the client’s name, email address, and shipping address.
2. Amazon Walmart, Amazon Etsy, eBay Amazon
Unfortunately, Amazon Pay will not work for Etsy, Walmart, and eBay the same way it does for Shopify. However, there’s another secret to get the most out of connecting Amazon – Walmart, Amazon – Etsy, and eBay – Amazon.
Synder accounting software allows e-commerce companies to add multiple sales platforms into their accounting.
It means if you have online stores on Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, eBay (and Shopify too), you can get all sales data from each source automatically synchronized into your accounting system. With no manual work involved. You will know how many sales you’ve made via what channel, as well as what the net and gross amounts are. The customer, vendor, merchant fees, and shipping data will be correctly reflected as well. It will be much easier to track inventory and even pay taxes, as all your financials will be securely recorded in one place.
Bottom line
The truth is there’s no right option when choosing the payment method for your Amazon business. The true question is how much you’re ready to adapt and improve the existing ways to process the payments.
Adaptation means using indirect methods of linking PayPal to Amazon, so it may require a few days to process the transaction. But It’s in your best interest to provide the most convenient payment options to your customers.
This process often requires employing third-party software solutions both for the sake of buyers and your own sake, especially when it comes to bookkeeping. Take advantage of Synder Sync – automated software that can provide you with the PayPal integration, so you get all your PayPal transactions easily auto-recorded and your books ready for flawless reconciliation.
Synder was designed with e-commerce businesses in mind, and can be used to sync PayPal transactions from your sales channels with popular accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero.
This software also gives e-commerce companies a chance to track major KPIs and get valuable business insights so that you can timely adjust your financial and marketing strategies to boost business performance. Check Synder’s possibilities during a 15-day free trial or book office hours for yourself and/or your accountant where our specialists will walk you through the whole process of Synder workflow and answer any questions you have.
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