An employee assists a customer at a Grupo Elektra SAB kiosk at a store in Mexico City, Mexico, on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017. In Mexico, where just about everyone prefers to pay cash, it turns out the key to online shopping is offline payments. Amazon.com Inc. is letting people pay for goods ordered on its website at the corner convenience store, while Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB and retail giant Elektra have set up kiosks at megastores that work much the same way. Photographer: Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg
As Wall Street worries about someday going up against the “Bank of Amazon,” recent moves by the online shopping Goliath indicate it’s already going in that direction overseas.
In places like India and Mexico, Amazon.com Inc is offering unique payments services and actively approaching finance-technology startups for investments and acquisitions, according to a research report by CB Insights set to publish Jan 25. In India, Amazon has a doorstep cash-pickup service that lets customers load money into a digital wallet. It has also acquired or invested in several startups there, including Emvantage Payments and BankBazaar. In Mexico, Amazon has a cash payment service meant to be an alternative to a credit or debit card.
