
Amazon's Simple Pay Subscription launches - lsb
https://payments-sandbox.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business?sn=paynow/subscription
======
patio11
I love you, Amazon. If the integration on this works fairly decently (at least
as well as Paypal's) I think I'll try that for my upcoming SAAS project.

Things I'll be looking at:

* Do you require customers to have an Amazon account to use this? (This is the #1 gotcha with Paypal recurring payments.)

* Is it easy to modify a subscription midstream? Can I give customers free months, discounts, etc?

* Administration tools? Administration API? (I want to click Refund on my site, not your site.)

* Can I conveniently work with multiple price points at once?

* Reporting: can you make my bookkeeping/accounting less painful?

* Migration: here's something Paypal has never done right -- suppose you sell the website or, for another reason, need to change what account receives payments. Do you have to cancel all subscriptions?

* Rails integration: can I get out of actually writing and testing as much of this as humanly possible?

~~~
nreece
>> * Do you require customers to have an Amazon account to use this? (This is
the #1 gotcha with Paypal recurring payments.)

Step 2: Subscriber signs in to their Amazon account

~~~
swombat
Then it's another Fail.

~~~
timf
If you use the underlying FPS APIs, I believe you can set up recurring
payments with no logins (I'm only going on docs, I haven't had direct coding
experience with FPS yet).

Quoting from
[http://aws.amazon.com/fps/faqs/#What_can_I_do_with_Amazon_FP...](http://aws.amazon.com/fps/faqs/#What_can_I_do_with_Amazon_FPS)

 _"Use tokens to execute one-time or multiple payments or recurring payments
on behalf of customers."_

\-----

And from
[http://aws.amazon.com/fps/faqs/#What_payment_methods_does_Am...](http://aws.amazon.com/fps/faqs/#What_payment_methods_does_Amazon_FPS_support)

 _"Amazon FPS supports the following payment methods:_

 _\- Bank Account debits_

 _\- Amazon Payments balance_

 _\- Credit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club,
and JCB)._

\-----

It looks like the "Amazon Payments" option is what this Simple Pay
subscription is employing, right?

~~~
johns
I'm pretty certain that whomever is the source of the funds is still required
to have an amazon account. I'd love to be wrong about this.

~~~
timf
You're right. I just took the time to look deeper into the FPS documentation.

So I'm getting the impression authorize.net is what most people here use for
no-account recurring payments?

------
steelhive
This page is a superbly clear summary of the service. Someone at Amazon should
be proud.

~~~
jgrahamc
Especially since they managed to describe it without mentioning the price.

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snprbob86
Can someone with experience processing payments themselves or with a similar
service comment on the pricing? Thank you.

[https://payments-
sandbox.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business?sn=pa...](https://payments-
sandbox.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business?sn=paynow/pricing)

~~~
zacharydanger
It looks cheaper than most of the payment gateway solutions offered by most
banks (i.e. Chase Paymentech). And there doesn't seem to be a monthly fee.

~~~
snprbob86
If I understand correctly, you need to pay a percentage and base transaction
fee to process credit cards anyway. This service from Amazon bakes their cut
into those two charges already. The Amazon charges are cheaper than competing
services, but how do they compare to doing it yourself? Is that even an
option?

This service sounds highly attractive except for the requiring of an Amazon
account. Hopefully, that problem can be mitigated somehow. I'd have to have a
good hard think.

~~~
timf
I think doing it yourself is an option.

You can integrate with something like authorize.net which I see mentioned a
lot.

But they, in turn, integrate with what are the I guess actual processors:

[http://www.authorize.net/solutions/resellersolutions/reselle...](http://www.authorize.net/solutions/resellersolutions/resellerprogram/processorlist/)

(note that I have no direct experience here yet)

~~~
timf
I'm confused now, at the link above Chase paymenttech is listed as a processor
connection. But they are listed as an authorize.net reseller at this link?

[http://www.authorize.net/reseller_dir.asp?page_id=148721&...](http://www.authorize.net/reseller_dir.asp?page_id=148721&reseller=46256)

I guess I have a lot to understand yet, sorry.

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joseakle
Is it expected to launch internationally?

~~~
lux
I'd like to know as well. Amazon FPS seems like one of the best/most
comprehensive solutions for payments, but from what I can gather from their
site, it's currently still limited to companies with a physical address, bank
account and credit card in the US. I'd love to use their services as a
Canadian company...

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physcab
On a somewhat related note, has anyone read the OReilly book on AWS? I haven't
looked into Amazon's documentation yet, but I'm wondering if the investment in
that book would really help the integration process.

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numair
This hasn't launched yet. It's in the "sandbox," which means you can test it.
I submitted a question asking if they had any sort of timetable on launching
Subscriptions - nothing definitive in their response.

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satyajit
Nice! Will it also work for donations? Like Paypal donations! My guess is yes,
but reading some more ...

~~~
satyajit
Oops - spoke too soon - without checking the link on the same page:
[https://payments-
sandbox.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business?sn=pa...](https://payments-
sandbox.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business?sn=paynow/donation)

~~~
satyajit
Once again - I didn't understand, why is Donation restricted to 'Non-profit
501 C3 organizations' only? What if I create an online free service, and want
to accept donations?

~~~
patio11
Sell "Supporter" accounts. 16x16 pixel marking on your user page, now only
$24.95. We'll color it gold if you chip in $49.95 instead.

(And because I enjoy flailing at equines which have ceased to be, charge money
for value.)

