Amazon is eyeing a major shift in its approach to payments in India. The e-commerce titan is considering launching Amazon Pay as a standalone app, separate from its primary shopping platform. This move, which Amazon is reportedly set to undertake in the coming months, is aimed at boosting the visibility and use of its payment service in the competitive Indian market.
Currently integrated within Amazon's main e-commerce app, Amazon Pay allows users to handle a range of financial transactions, from transferring money and paying bills to investing in digital assets and booking travel. Despite its capabilities, Amazon executives believe that Amazon Pay's integration within the broader app may be limiting its potential. By spinning off Amazon Pay into its own app, they hope to give it the dedicated focus it needs to increase its user base and transaction volume.
Amazon has already reached out to India's National Payments Corporation (NPCI) for approval of this planned shift. However, with the company's ongoing challenges in the Indian market, it's possible that these plans could evolve or be reconsidered.
Amazon Pay currently holds the sixth spot among apps using India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI), handling around 72.4 million transactions in July. While this represents a small fraction of the total UPI transactions—dominated by PhonePe and Google Pay—Amazon’s move could help it capture a larger share of the growing digital payments market.
Amazon’s potential shift to a standalone payments app reflects a broader trend in India, where attempts to emulate China’s superapp model have largely failed. Competitor Flipkart recently restructured its fintech services, merging them back into a unified platform after an earlier separation. As Amazon navigates these changes, the outcome of its strategy could significantly impact its position in the Indian digital payments landscape.
