Amazon to enter web payment service arena?

A recent posting by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch tells readers to prepare for an announcement, either this week or next, from Amazon. That announcement, it’s speculated, will be about an impending extension of Amazon Payments in to a full-blown web payment service.

“We hear that for now at least this is a redirect service only, like Google Checkout,” writes Arrington. “Users will be redirected to Amazon’s servers to complete the payment and then returned to the original site.”

Amazon’s customer footprint, which stands in the tens of millions, plus its brand recognition, puts the company in a good position from which to reach many potential users, a majority of whom have already entrusted the website with their payment and financial details.

Meanwhile, PayPal has launched a new service called PayPal Pay Later. It enables online retailers to offer credit accounts to customers, something which previous research by PayPal had highlighted as an option popular with its customers.

Tags: Amazon, Google Checkout, PayPal, web-based payment service