Amazon to Shut Down mPOS Register by Feb 2016

Amazon will close its mobile point-of-sale system Amazon Register, and users only have until Feb 1, 2016 to switch to another service provider.

Bidnes Etc reported that Amazon.com, Inc, which was just launched last year, is considered unsuccessful. The company no longer welcomes new registration for the mPOS. It will close down after February 1, but it will still provide transaction histories until February 28, 2016.

According to Venture Beat, the Amazon Register service is a credit card-reading technology that can be connected to a smartphone. It is aimed to compete with other cheap POS system for small businesses such as PayPal, Etsy, and Square. Processing money is not an easy business to profit from. It also typically operates in thin margins. To earn from this business, the company must have clients who have high sales volumes. This means, it is hard to target small businesses for this space. Amazon charged cheaper for its mPOS system service compared to its competitors, which means they were hardly earning from his business. In fact, the company could have been losing money from this venture. 

According to the company, "Amazon is constantly testing and launching new services to innovate on behalf of our customers. At this time, we have decided to discontinue the Amazon Register service."

Mobile World Live writes that Amazon no longer accepted new users for this mPOS service since October 30, 2015. Besides Amazon Register, the company also recently closed down its mobile wallet app, which lets users store gift cards and loyalty cards. The company also shut down its Amazon Local, which is a daily deals service provider that has been around for four years.

It is not all bad news for Amazon, as it seems to be thriving in the e-commerce payments space as it is set to introduce Pay, which puts Amazon buttons in mobile apps. It aims to attract websites to use its buttons.