Western Union debuts new payment option for Barbados

(MENAFN- Caribbean News Now) BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Western Union Company, a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, recently unveiled a new payment option that allows Amazon customers in Barbados to pay in local currency for their Amazon purchases. The new payment option enables customers who prefer to pay in cash to shop Amazon.com's vast product selection.

Western Union's platform is powering Amazon's new cross-border payment option, called Amazon PayCode, by processing the complex foreign exchange, settlement and money movement requirements for international e-commerce transactions. Barbados is the most recent country enabled since the service rolled out in ten countries last year including Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.

The new payment option makes it easy for more customers to shop Amazon.com and the Amazon mobile app. After selecting PayCode on the Amazon checkout page, customers will be sent a code, along with instructions on how to pay in person at a participating Western Union agent location. The move by Western Union and Amazon provides greater access to online goods for customers who have largely been excluded from e-commerce shopping due to lack of accepted payment methods.

Forrester Research estimates that cross-border shopping will represent 20 percent of e-commerce by 2022, with sales reaching $630 billion. One choice, quality and cost are the main motivations for customers to shop online from overseas, but there are challenges and concerns about the lack of payment options for those who prefer to pay in person or those who do not have access to international credit cards or debit cards.

'We're helping to unlock access to Amazon.com for customers who need and want items that can only be found online in many parts of the world,' said Khalid Fellahi, SVP and general manager of Western Union Digital. 'This is a great example of two global brands innovating and collaborating to bring customers more convenience and choice.

In a world where cross-border buyers and sellers are often located on different continents and in completely different financial ecosystems, Western Union's platform is ideally suited to solving the complexity of collecting local currency and converting it into whatever currency merchants need on the other end.'

'Amazon is committed to enabling customers anywhere in the world to shop on Amazon.com, and a big part of that is to allow customers to pay for their cross-border online purchases in a way that is most convenient for them,' said Ben Volk, director, payment acceptance and experience at Amazon. 'Amazon PayCode leverages the reach of Western Union to make cross-border online shopping a reliable and convenient experience for customers who do not have access to international credit cards or prefer to pay in cash.'

Cross-border shopping on the rise Western Union's cross-border, cross-currency money movement platform, including a robust digital footprint, settlement, treasury and compliance infrastructure, a vast global retail network of over half a million locations, and the ability to send money to billions of accounts and mobile wallets sets the standard for international money movement. With operations in more than 200 countries and territories, Western Union's platform processed an average of 34 transactions every second and moved $300 billion in principal across 130 currencies in 2018.

Connecting the digital and physical worlds of money, Western Union's technology stack, APIs, foreign exchange and settlement engine, agent network, anti-money laundering and fraud detection capabilities make it one of the largest digital and physical money movers for consumers around the globe. Approximately 75 percent of Western Union's digital transactions globally now originate on mobile devices.

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