Cyber Monday, the biggest day in the eCommerce world is rapidly approaching on Nov 27th. Last year, sales topped $3.4 Billion dollars in Canada, a huge amount, but still much less than the amount spent in-store on Black Friday. Even as Canadians get more comfortable shopping online, there are some notable barriers that keep many from taking advantage of the online deals. For example, according to the Bank of Canada, less than 40% of Canadians view online transactions with credit cards as secure and 59% will abandon their cart if their preferred payment method is not in place.
This year will be different for one notable reason - it will be the first year where truly all Canadians have the ability to take advantage of the great deals that will be offered - at least on the flagship online retailer - Amazon.ca
Amazon customers across Canada can now visit any Canada Post retail location to add funds to their Amazon.ca/cash balance using Amazon Cash, powered by Payment Source’s award winning Loadhub pay-in-person solution. To use Amazon Cash, customers can visit amazon.ca/cash to receive a barcode linked to their account. They bring this barcode to any Canada Post location, where the Loadhub platform enables them to pay in person with cash or debit to add funds to their Amazon.ca account.
We are excited to team up with Amazon to launch this solution in Canada - mainly because it addresses the needs of consumers who traditionally don’t shop online, the security conscious and the underbanked. No sensitive data is needed to make a purchase online; and those who do not have the ability to use a credit card can now pay with cash or debit.
You can start to see how this is valuable for Amazon, when looking at one segment in particular, Generation Z. According to GenZ, Amazon is cool. In fact, Amazon is in the top 10 of most recognized brands for this young group of consumers, but a large segment of them do not have credit cards - meaning that until now they were unable to shop on the site and instead needed to visit malls or other bricks and mortar retailers in order to make their purchases.
GenZ want to be able to make purchases on Amazon and this has made Amazon their second most used app on their phone, beaten only by SnapChat. Amazon has recognized the potential buying power of GenZ and has recently released their own social commerce tool, called Spark, to try and engage with these young consumers early in their buying behaviour lifecycle. Amazon Cash is a way for these consumers to purchase what they’re seeing on these channels and become potential lifetime customers as their spending potential continues to increase.
Amazon.ca/Cash also allows these consumers to take advantage of the Cyber Monday lightning deals. Because the approach is to ‘pre-fund’ the account, people are able to complete ‘one-click’ purchases when they see a limited time offer.