Update: October 30, 2015 | Geekwire reported that on December 18, 2015, Amazon will shut down its daily deals program and discontinue the Amazon Local app along with it.
Protect your neck if you are twisting it from side to side following the ping-pong match between Google and Amazon as they try to outdo one-another in letting small businesses know how much they love them.
Today, the competition notched up even more with Amazon’s announcement of a new small business-focused merchant payment system called Amazon Local Register, a direct competitor with Google Wallet (okay, maybe not Google Wallet, but Square, Paypal, et al, as we’ve overviewed before).
Amazon also launched today a section on Amazon.com called Amazon Local Business that bundles a promotion for the new payment system with its daily deal service (also branded Amazon Local). The new page appears to be a direct reply to a similar page on Google.com, “Google My Business.”
If you haven’t been following this match, a good place to start is our analysis Monday of Google’s Shopping Express and how the competition between it and Amazon’s local delivery service could end up catching small businesses in the crossfire.
Amazon’s new small business promotional page carries the brand, Amazon.com Local Business and has this message prominently featured: “Grow your business with Amazon Local: Get discovered, connect with customers, and build your business.” By comparison, “Google My Business” features this message: “Google My Business connects you directly with customers, whether they’re looking for you on Search, Maps or Google+.”
Amazon Local Register is using the company’s typical strategy when moving into a new market: pricing. It is undercutting both Paypal (2.7%) and Square’s (2.75% ) per swipe fee with an introductory charge of 1.75% per swipe (through Dec. 21 2015). As Google Wallet has been slowly deemphasized by the company–that or it views the product as a national chain online effort, its online marketing is primarily focused at getting users to download its app.