After launching Amazon CashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More in the US in April, in the UK in August and in Mexico in October, this cash-payment service for online purchases has now been extended to Canada. Partnering with the alternative paymentA transfer of funds which discharges an obligation on the part of a payer vis-à-vis a payee. More provider Payment Source, the online shopping giant Amazon will now allow unbanked and underbanked Canadians to shop without owning a credit card. All they have to do is walk into one of 6,000 Canada Post locations across the country, scan the barcodeMethod for encoding information, which can be read by machines. Barcodes store information using a combination of printed parallel lines (bars) and in the spaces that are left between them. Reading stored data is performed using optical readers. More they retrieved from their Amazon account, and pay with cash or debit to be directly added to their account.
“The benefits of ecommerce should not be restricted to Canadians with access to a credit card. Amazon Cash brings that online shopping experience to everyone” stated Payment Source CEO, Trevor Cook. Indeed, online shopping can often be a form of social exclusion especially considering that 34% of Canadians are under- or unbanked. Furthermore, it was found that almost two thirds of Canadian consumers abandon their online shopping carts when they find out that their preferred payment option is unavailable; so offering the option to pay cash will only expand the choices for checking out.
Adding cash as a key part of their business strategy is becoming a generalized trend. In fact, many other large corporations – even those with only an online presence – have been adopting cash payment options including Uber, Walmart and Paypal proving that there are large chunks of the world’s population – even in developed economies – that have little or no access to financial services.