Apple Issuer Fees and Amazon Groceries through the USPS

A couple pieces of news to post today.

First up is continuing rumors around Apple's possible mobile payments capability to be revealed September 9th.  This report says Apple has reached a deal with a number of major issuers (organizations that issue credit cards) to reduce the interchange fee for swipes through the Apple wallet with bio-metrics.

The key issue is proving the card is present during the swipe.  Since, technically, the card does not have to be present the merchant would see a higher fee known as Card Not Present.  With the card added to the Apple Passbook wallet with bio-metric proof of ownership it makes sense these should be considered Card Present transactions and that may be the deal they've made.

Here is the story over on PYMTS.com:

http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2014/apple-to-get-rebates-from-issuers-on-fees/#.VAmlcsVdX9Y

The article mentions the question of passing along relaxed interchange fees to the merchant in these instances.  This really does no favor for the merchant that is already paying what they consider to be a high interchange fee on Card Present transactions.

Take away some, take away more, then give back a bit of that last one and say you are giving me relief?  Doesn't sound to pleasant from where I'm sitting.

Next is news of Amazon working with the United States Postal Service to deliver perishable groceries:

http://www.internetretailer.com/2014/09/04/amazons-groceries-are-mail

Here is a snippet from that piece:

The U.S. Postal Service is delivering meat, vegetables and other groceries ordered via Amazon.com Inc. to consumers in the San Francisco area in a test that could produce a larger harvest of e-commerce deliveries for the federal agency

The test began the first week of August and was designed to run for 60 days, says a Postal Service spokeswoman. The agency will deliver orders to members of the AmazonFresh online grocery service between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m., when postal trucks typically would be idle. Perishable food comes in insulated bags, eliminating the need for refrigerated transport.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant