Amazon Enables U.S. Customers to Pay for Online Purchases With Cash

Amazon.com is making it possible for customers to pay with cash for their online purchases, according to TechCrunch. The online retailer announced yesterday that over the next few weeks it will launch a new checkout option in the U.S. called Amazon PayCode, which will allow consumers to pay for Amazon purchases at a Western Union.

PayCode, which launched earlier this year in partnership with Western Union, is available in 19 other counties, including emerging markets where paying with cash is more common, TechCrunch reported. Some countries include Costa Rica, Hong Kong, and Tanzania.

Instead of using a bank card, Amazon customers can choose the PayCode option at checkout, at which point they will receive a QR code to bring to a Western Union to complete the transaction. U.S. customers will have 24 hours to make the payment. Amazon reported that 80 percent of Americans live within five miles of a participating Western Union.

TechCrunch also reported that Amazon's Amazon Cash service, which lets you load cash into an Amazon account, is now offered at more than 100,000 cash-loading locations across the country.

Total Retail's Take: While it seems that many U.S. consumers are almost entirely cash-free these days and depend on apps like Venmo and PayPal to make transactions, there are still Americans who primarily use cash. In fact, TechCrunch reported that Amazon, citing data from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, noted that 39 percent of in-person payments in the U.S. are made using cash. It seems smart of Amazon to provide payment options for all consumers, and especially an option as convenient as PayCode sounds, allowing consumers to pay after they've shopped. With this new service Amazon is targeting a whole new type of shopper and diversifying its customer base.