AMAZON’S CONSUMER LENDING

Amazon offers Amazon Prime cards to help serve 2 broader corporate goals: grow Prime customers and increase marketplace sales. To attract card customers, Amazon has been adding perks that are exclusive to Prime members. Cardholders are likely to spend more on Amazon than non-cardholders, which also benefits Amazon’s marketplace (and boosts customer loyalty).

On the consumer side, Amazon has tried out several partner cards for Prime and non-Prime customers, which include:

• Amazon Prime Store Card — Launched in 2015 with partner Synchrony Bank, it was Amazon’s first card exclusively for Prime customers, offering unlimited 5% cash back on Amazon purchases.
• Amazon Store Card — Offers some of the benefits of the Prime Store Card but for non-Prime customers. It does not offer the 5% cash back perk.
• Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card — Launched in 2017 with Visa, this card gives Prime members 5% cash back at Amazon and Whole Foods, 2% cash back at gas stations, restaurants, and drugstores, and 1% cash back on everything else.
• Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card — Partner card with Visa for non-Prime customers that offers 3% cash back on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, 2% cash back at gas stations, restaurants, and drugstores, and 1% cash back on everything else.
  
  
  
• Amazon Reload — A reloadable digital debit card available only to Prime members that offers 2% cash back on Amazon purchases. The card links directly to consumers’ checking accounts and can be reloaded on a recurring or one-time basis.
• Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card — In 2018, Amazon Pay and India-based ICICI Bank launched a Visa-powered, co-branded credit card. Prime customers of this card can earn 5% cash back on purchases made through Amazon India, while non-Prime customers get 3% cash back.
• Amazon Credit Builder — In Q2’19, Amazon partnered with Synchrony Bank to create a program that helps customers in the unbanked and underbanked income brackets boost their credit with a secured credit card. Like secured credit cards offered at banks, it requires a one-time deposit between $100 and $1,000 at the time of the account opening, which then becomes the card’s credit limit.
  

  Both the Amazon Prime Store Card and Amazon Store Card offer 0% financing for consumers on certain kinds of Amazon purchases:

  • Purchases of $150 or more if fully paid within 6 months.
  • Purchases of $600 or more if fully paid within 12 months.
  • Select Amazon purchases if fully paid within 24 months.

  Amazon is also frequently featured as a destination to spend credit card points by credit programs including Chase Freedom, Discover Cashback Match, and Blue Cash for Amex.

  In 2021, Amazon entered the BNPL market via partnerships with BNPL provider Affirm and UK-based bank Barclays. The Affirm partnership allows Amazon customers to pay for purchases exceeding $50 over a period of several months. Barclays clients can sign up for an Instalments by Barclays credit account. It enables Amazon UK shoppers to break up payments of $135 or more (£100) over a period of 3 to 48 months. The companies also launched a similar offering in Germany in 2020.

  FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS OF AMAZON’S LENDING OPS

  In 2018, Amazon extended the 5% cash back reward to purchases at Whole Foods on the Prime Rewards Visa Card. This is one example of how Amazon is adding perks and exclusive benefits for Prime customers, making the cards more competitive and attractive to customers in-store.