rigel coda: What is it and Why Should Online Business Owners Care?

Amazon has announced a new sign-in service, Login with Amazon. As an ecommerce driven company, this is an interesting and intelligent move for Amazon, one which raises notable questions for social sites with login services, online business owners, and Amazon members who would use Login with Amazon.

So What Is Login with Amazon, And What Does It All Mean?

Login with Amazon is a service which allows Amazon members to sign into other online services, stores, games, and apps with existing Amazon login information.

The Login with Amazon FAQ?offers this explanation:

Login with Amazon allows users to login to registered third party websites or apps ('clients') using their Amazon user name and password. Clients may ask the user to share some personal information from their Amazon profile, including name, email address, and zip code.

Amazon's press release explains the launch as aimed toward reducing "sign-in friction" and a way to "drive higher customer engagement".

Check out their video explanation of Login with Amazon:

Login With Amazon: What Does It All Mean For Online Business Owners?

Just like other sign in services, Login with Amazon is designed to allow users to login to multiple places without the hassle of remembering or storing that information.

Customers looking to complete a purchase would have the option to login to through the merchant site or with Login with Amazon, which would look something like this:

The big differentiator between existing login services is the nature of Login with Amazon, which stems from an ecommerce company. Comparatively, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the majority of other services that allow single sign-in are social sharing based.

For merchants, this means Login with Amazon could be their foot in the door to Amazon's significant shopper base of over 200 million active customers, and those potential purchases.

If you are an online business owner and you want to sign up with Login with Amazon, you can do so here. Or find getting started with Login with Amazon guides here.

While this is a promising prospect, and Amazon is quick to point out that retailers such as Zappos and Woot (although both Amazon held) are both enjoying the perks of Login with Amazon, the main question yet to be seen is who will ultimately have access to customer data.

Here is what Login with Amazon looks like on Zappos:

Amazon notes that "customers can share some personal information from their Amazon profile, including name, email address, and zip code", but what the full details of where customer information are still a bit fuzzy, as this question on the Amazon seller forum shows:

Online business owners would like to hope they would potentially retain that customer information for retargeting, and similar marketing efforts. But Amazon would be smart to hold on to that customer data and make retailers dependent, similar to the marketplace scenario.

Login With Amazon: What Does It All Mean For Online Shoppers?

Amazon shoppers tend to be a loyal bunch, and appreciate usability features, such as one click ordering. Amazon holds retailers to a very strict standard, so online shoppers can expect that sites which partner with Login with Amazon will be similarly trustworthy.

However, as the popularity of password applications underscore, online shoppers and online users in general have a large number of existing login information, and already have multiple choices for single sign- in services.

Although Login with Amazon is designed to be the go-to login for users, whether this service is preferred to existing one stop logins has yet to be seen.

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