If you haven’t heard by now, Amazon.com offers a way to accept payments online similar to the way Google Wallet (AKA Google Checkout), Moneybookers and Paypal do — you can see for yourself by visiting the Checkout by Amazon site.
I have actually been using this service for quite a while and I must say that I am very impressed with it for many reasons, but mainly due to:
1) the large number of people that use it to purchase items from my store.
and…
2) how I can make easy money just by accepting it.
Yeah, you read right but I know, I know… How often do you see the words easy and money in the same sentence? Not too often, right? Also when you do, you know better than to believe there is such a thing. Luckily, in this case, there is.
Because by accepting Checkout by Amazon, you can actually make more money without physically selling anything! In fact, you don’t do any work at all — Amazon does it all for you.
All you need to do is:
- Sign up for an Amazon Associates account.
- Enable the Up-sell feature in Checkout by Amazon.
- Select Up-sell Amazon.com products.
- Enter your associates ID from the Amazon Associates website.
After the settings have been made, you can make money when someone buys something from Amazon during the checkout process.
Below you can view my video demonstration:
Can’t view the video? Watch it on YouTube
I have actually been using this feature for a few months and money started accumulating in my associates account almost immediately (guess Amazon is pretty good at up-selling merchandise).
Amazon’s payment processing fees are also fair when compared to the fees charged by Google Wallet, Moneybookers and Paypal.
As for accepting Checkout by Amazon on your site, there are a few ways that you can do this…
You can either create the buttons in the Amazon seller central and then paste the html code into your site or you can use a shopping cart that automatically generates the buttons for you. To find out which ones do, you can view my list of paid and free shopping carts.
In general, I like Checkout by Amazon but I did come across a few people that didn’t like the observation period and Tier I of the Amazon reserve which can make it difficult to operate a business when money is tight. For this reason, you’d want to look into those terms prior to accepting Checkout by Amazon.
In my case, this wasn’t really an issue because I had an established reputation on the Amazon marketplace and was immediately upgraded to Tier II when I signed up for Checkout by Amazon. So if you sell there and meet the Tier II requirements, you will most likely get upgraded as well.
Of course, if you don’t sell on the Amazon marketplace, there are other ways that you can meet the Tier II requirements. For example, if you have an established business elsewhere and can prove it, you can request an upgrade to Tier II by emailing the Checkout by Amazon team with this proof, and if Amazon feels that the requirements have been met, they will upgrade your account.