Amazon now offers more ways for you to pay in cash
PayCode joins Amazon Cash in the US as another method for using cash to buy from the online retailer.
Amazon is introducing its PayCode service to the US, bringing it to 15,000 Western Union locations.
PayCode joins Amazon Cash as another way for shoppers to buy online using cash instead of a debit or credit card. With Amazon Cash, introduced two years ago, people load money into their Amazon accounts by going to a store like CVS or Sheetz.
While PayCode is similar, buyers instead load up their carts, select PayCode at checkout, then pay at a Western Union. The goods are shipped only after the payment is made. A big benefit of PayCode versus Amazon Cash is that users won't have to maintain a balance on Amazon to use it.
PayCode and Amazon Cash are part of Amazon's push to expand its user base by making its site more accessible to people that may not have a bank account or plastic, such as younger or lower-income shoppers. This work could help Amazon compete against Walmart, which caters many of its services to lower-income shoppers.
Amazon says, though, that these services aren't targeted at any particular customer base and instead provide people with another payment option.
PayCode and Amazon Cash are also among a handful of services the company uses to partner with brick-and-mortar retailers, since Amazon doesn't have many stores of its own. Those services include Amazon delivery lockers and return drop-offs at Kohl's department stores.
Amazon already provides PayCode in 19 other countries, and it's now working over the next few weeks to bring the service to 15,000 Western Union locations in the US. The company late last month started bringing Amazon Cash to those locations, too, helping bring the total number of Amazon Cash locations to 100,000 nationwide.