A New Amazon POS System Set To Compete With Shopify and Square?

A new Amazon POS system that they have been working on could be set to disrupt the payment market by competing with the likes of Shopify and Square.

Don’t Miss

• Do you need a business bank account for your online business? Have a look at our review of the five best bank accounts for sellers, some of which are free with no minimum balance or deposits.
• Boost your social media engagement with Publer. Learn how you can save time writing engaging content faster with AI. ^[sponsored]
• eBay to compete with sellers now!
• New stamp prices and fee increases are coming from USPS on July 9.
• SMALL BUSINESS WEEK SPECIAL: Three tips for SMB ecommerce success in 2023.

This news came from an exclusive run by Business Insider which upon publication resulted in the shares for both Shopify, Square, and PayPal dipping. The new Amazon POS system is the brainchild of an internal Amazon team called Project Santos which was tasked with going after Shopify’s core audience of small merchants.

One of the main projects that we know about at least is a new Amazon POS which would be a new type of point-of-sale that could be sold to third-party sellers. The system would be able to handle in-store and online transactions, add Amazon checkout options, and provide inventory and business analytics according to an internal Amazon document allegedly reviewed by Insider.

The document also stated how the new Amazon POS would also link to other Amazon services, such as the Prime membership program, the One palm-based identification technology, and the Flex delivery network.

“This will allow our small business (SMB) customers to unify their online and offline channel management including inventory, offer Amazon One for contactless recognition and payment, and offer a customizable loyalty program that can utilize Prime benefits,”

Amazon POS Shows Increasing Interest Of In-Store Retail

A few weeks ago we covered the news of how Amazon was allegedly planning on opening larger physical department store-style locations around the country. Not only would an Amazon POS be likely to bring small merchants to the Amazon marketplace but it could also potentially get them access to physical locations too.

This means that Amazon’s new focus on physical stores extends way beyond building an array of brick-and-mortar locations. It is also looking to sell software used by merchants in other stores to check out customers and analyze data even as Amazon continues to expand its own cashier-less technology.

This makes a lot of sense for Amazon, it is clear that they cannot ignore the growing popularity of Shopify. It could also add a further reason as to why the Shopify native Amazon integration has been pulled leaving Shopify customers to look for third-party integrations.

When also looking at the state of payment gateways and POS systems for eCommerce businesses it is an arena that Amazon could definitely bring a lot of value to and for Amazon sellers, a lot of no-brainer value and convenience.

The Amazon POS Opportunity

A new Amazon POS system would put the eCommerce giant in direct competition with payment-processing companies that offer their own POS solutions such as Square, PayPal, Shopify, and a whole host of others. The global POS software market was worth $9.26 billion in 2020, and is predicted to reach $19.56 billion by 2028.

More than that however is the question of just how far will Amazon go to compete directly with Shopify? A new POS system is one thing but there is much more to an eCommerce platform than a POS system. This is where a story we covered back in February comes in which was the very quiet Amazon acquisition of an Australian company called Selz.

At this time Amazon has declined to comment on any of the speculations as they famously “Don’t comment on rumors” however with the amount of information that has been leaked it feels safe to say that Amazon is working on something big and potentially disruptive to the industry.

At this time there are no timelines being suggested for any public announcement, however, as always we will keep you up to date on any developments we hear from this story.