PayPal today announced that Amazon.com will be adding a Venmo option to checkout for users in the U.S., starting next year. The news arrived as the online payment giant announced solid third quarter results, with a 13% year over year revenue increase.
Beginning at some point in 2022, Amazon shoppers will be able to link their accounts to popular mobile payment services for purchases made through both Amazon.com and the company’s mobile shopping app.
“We understand our customers want options and flexibility in how they make purchases on Amazon,” Amazon’s Director of Global Payment Acceptance Ben Volk said in a statement. “We’re excited to team-up with Venmo and give our customers the ability to pay by using their Venmo accounts, providing new ways to pay on Amazon.”
The deal is no doubt mutually beneficial for both parts. As PayPal notes, it currently counts north of 80 million users in the U.S. alone. The company also cites a recent in-house “behavior study” that notes, “65% of Venmo users said they increased their online purchasing behaviors amidst the pandemic and 47% are interested in paying with Venmo when checking out with merchants.”
The broader question is how widely the service will be utilized for Amazon users who have thus far had little problem relying on credit payment. Its current slate of payment options includes credit or debit cards, store cards, checking accounts, HSAs or FSAs or EBT cards. It bears mentioning, however, that PayPal is not currently natively supported as a payment option on the service, so the addition of Venmo is a nice win for the company.
Broadly speaking, PayPal’s impending integration with Amazon could bring a much-awaited crypto edge to the multinational e-commerce company. Maybe.
PayPal announced in March that US consumers would be allowed to check out at millions of businesses using cryptocurrencies, while Venmo recently expanded its support for cryptocurrency through new features that allow users to buy cryptocurrency using cash-back from Venmo credit card purchases.
But that may be more of a vision than a reality at this point. While Amazon is hiring for a head of digital currency and blockchain technology, it also recently shut down rumors about plans that it may start accepting crypto as payments. In a statement to TechCrunch, PayPal hinted that the upcoming partnership does not yet include crypto, owing Venmo’s currently limited integration with the currencies.
“Today’s announcement is solely about enabling Venmo customers in the U.S. to pay with Venmo at checkout. We look forward to continuing to grow this relationship but have nothing more to share at this time,” the company said in a statement.
