Scrolling back to pre-2017, there were a limited number of payment gateways and options - making the choice of which solutions to have on your storefronts a relatively easy decision, usually coming down to only commercial arrangement. But today, there are 5x more options available and what's more, each provider now has triple the amount of solutions and propositions to choose from.

In the UK, the BNPL (buy now pay later) propositions began taking traction in 2019 - and then the COVID-19 pandemic added fuel to this fire, making 2020 the year when BNPL really became popular among consumers. Since then, many new providers have entered the UK market and the modern consumer is often spoilt for choice with multiple BNPL offerings on retailer websites.

Included in the list of providers who now offer a BNPL/credit offering, is both Amazon Pay and PayPal. Below we review these offerings and their benefits.

Amazon Pay merchants can benefit from Amazon’s sophisticated checkout technology. Here are three ways we help secure and maintain healthy relationships between your business and your customers.

About Amazon Pay

Amazon Pay is more than a payment button. It makes shopping easier by letting your shopper use their Amazon account information to complete purchases on your website. No need to remember multiple logins and passwords. It’s a fast, easy, and secure way to shop online. Learn more at pay.amazon.co.uk.

Amazon Pay has the same checkout technology found on Amazon.co.uk, bringing the fast, secure, and familiar Amazon.co.uk payment experience to your customers without them leaving your site. And with more than 300 million members worldwide, adding Amazon Pay gives your business the opportunity to tap into a loyal, highly engaged customer base. Our powerful checkout technology reduces cart abandonment and is easy on your technical resources helping you upgrade seamlessly to the latest innovations and features from Amazon.co.uk.

Amazon’s well-known A-to-z Guarantee makes shoppers feel comfortable and safe when purchasing from your site. For you as a business, the Payment Protection Policy helps protect you from the negative impacts of chargebacks.

Robust fraud prevention

Amazon Pay is backed by the fraud protection technology used on Amazon.co.uk, so you can feel safe and secure while your customers are shopping at your store. Additionally, with Amazon Pay, you can choose to process authorizations asynchronously to give our fraud models more time to analyze transactions. Processing authorizations asynchronously can lead to lower decline rates for high-risk transactions without increasing the probability of fraudulent purchases.

Payment Protection Policy (PPP)

The Payment Protection Policy (PPP) may protect you from chargebacks, or “charge disputes,” if your business and transactions meet all of the requirements of the policy. For transactions to potentially qualify, they must be for the sale of a physical good and the chargeback must be labeled as an Unauthorized Payment. If we find that the transaction qualifies, Amazon Pay will cover the chargeback if you provide the following information to Amazon Pay within 11 calendar days of notification in accordance with our policy: proof of delivery, shipment date, shipping address, tracking number (if applicable), and whether the product sold was a physical or intangible good. Other supporting information may be required. Note that the shipping address must match the address provided by Amazon Pay so the customer shouldn’t be allowed to modify the address during checkout; otherwise, the chargeback will not be covered by the Payment Protection Policy.

Amazon Pay A-to-Z Guarantee

A buyer can file an Amazon Pay A-to-Z Guarantee claim if they are not satisfied with their purchase. Over the years, Amazon has built a base of millions of satisfied customers by being responsive to their concerns and acting quickly to resolve these concerns. We extend this valuable customer trust to merchants like you who are using Amazon Pay services through the Amazon Pay A-to-Z Guarantee program. The Amazon Pay A-to-Z Guarantee provides customers with an opportunity to obtain a full reimbursement for their purchase or cancel their authorized payment if they are not satisfied with a purchase made on a third-party site using Amazon Pay.

The vast majority of customers will never need this program, but for those who do, the guarantee gives us a chance to provide confidence and trust when they shop from the universe of merchants who use our service.

Common business questions about Amazon Pay

1. I already have too many payment options. Why should I add Amazon Pay?

According to the UX experts at the Baymard Institute, 8% of people abandon a site because their preferred payment method isn’t offered. If almost one out of every 10 of your customers is abandoning your site because you don’t offer the right payment options, it’s worth reconsidering your checkout experience. With Amazon Pay, you can help reduce cart abandonment by making it easier for hundreds of millions of Amazon customers to check in and out on your site using the information already stored in their accounts — including both their shipping addresses and payment details.

2. What’s the ROI of adding Amazon Pay?

Amazon Pay can help merchants boost revenue by increasing conversions among hundreds of millions of valuable Amazon customers. With Amazon Pay, you can offer a trusted, convenient experience and one familiar log-in to lower cart abandonment and optimize your CX. Businesses can also help reduce their risk of incurring bad debt by leveraging the same advanced fraud prevention technology used by Amazon.co.uk.

3. How complex is Amazon Pay’s integration process?

For merchants already working with a major shopping cart solution provider, you can easily integrate Amazon Pay into your commerce experience without a major time commitment. Depending on your provider, it could be as easy as registering your business with Amazon Pay and enabling the payment solution in your administration panel.

Simplify put, PayPal offers the most flexible and seamless way to interact with money instantly in the moments that matter, with more protections across your connected, borderless life. PayPal understands your specific needs as a merchant and gives you the tools and credibility with current and future customers.

About PayPal and Braintree

In the UK, there are 31 million PayPal active accounts, 46% are male and 54% female - their age demographics are split relatively evenly: 18-29 years: 20%; 30-39 years: 23%; 40-49 years: 23%; 50-64 years: 34%. With a user share of 91%, PayPal is the most used payment service in the UK.

PayPal report that retailers can benefit from a 71% increase in checkout conversion, 1.6x more purchase completion when PayPal is available at checkout and 30% more repeat buyers. All of which are big claims!

A common misunderstanding is the difference between PayPal and Braintree - and it's not surprising, given the complexity and connection. Essentially, Braintree and PayPal are completely separate products - they offer slightly different functions and consumer propositions.

Similar to PayPal, Braintree enables businesses to accept credit and debit card payments from customers. Additionally, Braintree enables businesses to accept payments from customers using digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo, another PayPal subsidiary. Users with PayPal accounts are able to purchase and sell particular cryptocurrencies for a charge. That kind of transaction is not available with Braintree.

Braintree is a payments gateway platform which allows merchants to offer different payment types, and to process payments using the web or mobile devices.

PayPal promote 5 key benefits for merchants, these are:

1. Protection for your business -

"Our ethical business practices and continuously improving fraud tools offer total transparency and control, helping keep transactions secure – for you and your customers. Plus, we reinforce your credibility with new customers, and our Seller Protection provides added reassurance that we’ll have your back if anything goes wrong. "

2. Powerfully flexible commerce solutions -

"With PayPal, the right solutions for your business are quickly and easily accessible, seamless to apply, and simple to manage – however you want to do business. With a single integration, you can offer multiple ways to pay including Pay with PayPal, credit card payments and locally relevant payment methods, and manage all of  these payments in one place."

3. Make checkout easier -

"Online, mobile, in-store, or in-app, PayPal can help you expertly drive 267M customers globally through checkout. PayPal shares insights with you and offers with your customers, and intelligently presents relevant payment options at checkout including Pay with PayPal, credit card payments and locally relevant payment methods. Plus, you can offer customers the peace of mind of refunded return shipping. "

4. Maximize business opportunities -

"PayPal drives your business goals forward by offering instant access to your funds and the capital you need to grow your business. And with the ability to expand internationally, capture global and local shoppers with relevant payment methods, deploy ready-to-use marketing messages, and offer well-timed credit options, you can reduce cart abandonment, increase average order size, and keep customers returning. "

5. Future-proof your business -

"We give all our merchants a fair chance to compete. With instant access to funds and continuously improving technology designed for ongoing optimization, PayPal is constantly working to help you achieve your goals more quickly. Our dashboard offers clear and actionable insights about how PayPal and Venmo customers shop on your site and across other PayPal merchants so you can easily identify new opportunities and make more effective marketing decisions."

Comparison chart

Each of these solutions has their own benefits and your customers (and future customers) will have their preferred payment solutions, however, with the right UX, a retailer can stack both Amazon Pay and PayPal on their checkout as two options.

In the near future, I would expect to begin seeing a button on PDPs - allowing customers to add a product from your website into their Amazon basket. This virtual product transfer would allow a customer to complete a purchase on Amazon, benefiting from the use of Amazon gift-cards, and delivery promises.

Overall, I would recommend carefully considering both payment solution providers to understand the impact on customer UX and benefit gains, vs implementation costs.