An Easy Way For Banks (And Amazon) To Make Even More Money
I’ve been thinking about this idea for at least a couple of years and I keep waiting for somebody to develop it. I can only assume that the reason it hasn’t happened is because of some legal obstacle. If this is true then money, as they say, talks, and this is such a killer idea that I imagine it won’t be long before somebody finds a loophole.
Picture the scene: it’s 11.37pm on a Saturday night. You’ve just left your favourite bar, and now you’re going on to a nightclub. First, you need some money. You head to the ATM, punch in your details, select the amount you want to withdrawal, and wait.
The machine whirrs, and while it’s counting your money, a new image pops up on the screen. There, right in front of you, are the top ten best-selling albums on Amazon.com, all at Amazon.com prices. All with free P&P.
You’ve just been listening to music, you’ve had a few drinks, and the latest Muse album (AL) sounds like a really good idea. You click one button on the screen, and Amazon takes the money directly from your account. A couple of days later, the CD arrives.
Or maybe you don’t want a CD. Don’t worry. There’s another button you can click that shows the top ten best-selling DVD releases, too. And books. And MP3s. And ringtones.
All cheaply priced. All irresistibly affordable.
Price everything at £10 or less, and Amazon – and your bank, who will take a cut – are on to a sure-fire winner. The bank already has all of your address and payment details. Amazon takes care of the rest.
Not everybody cares about the top ten best-seller lists, but enough people do pay attention to make this extremely profitable for the first bank that gets into bed with Amazon.
Or any other major retailer – the only part that matters is the price you see on the screen must be low enough for the offer to be extremely attractive. If you have to go away and think about it, the sale is dead. Even if this feature was only pitched at student accounts or was configured in some way to only appear to people of a certain age or other demographic, I cannot think of a single reason why it wouldn’t be a major success.
The best part? There’s virtually no risk. The bank isn't investing in any stock, and Amazon isn't investing in any bank. And if you wake up the next morning and realise you bought the wrong CD, all you have to do is return it.
Comments 12 Comments
The only potential drawback I can see from this is if the two companies in question decide to harvest data on the customers in form saleable databases, although this could be dealt with by the customer declining consent with the bank and also the vendor for yet more after-sales junk mail.
You should and pitch this idea to the banks, even if you charged a fraction of one tenth of a percent of all transactions for use of your idea, you'd be richer than God overnight.
Perhaps Amazon would treat these as one-off purchases, and the bank itself would be the customer. That would likely eliminate any data protection issues. Or maybe you could link your bank and Amazon in some way.
Hacking doesn't really come into it. If Amazon was hacked *now*, your data would be at risk. Most people who use Amazon have their debit and credit cards on there. That's a separate issue and not directly related to this venture.
Amazon is the world's biggest retailer - if they get hacked, a lot of people could be in trouble, and it wouldn't have anything to do with this idea! :)
(The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of each bank being the customer of Amazon. Amazon charges the bank the amount less 10%, for example, and they pass the full payment on to you.)
However I still stand by my original comment that this is an excellent idea.
Customised ATM's like this installed in colleges, universities and other similar establishments would be excellent money savers/makers and also providers of cheap affordable music as opposed to using more 'traditional' methods of obtaining sounds.
Regarding the privacy thing, one way that this (could?) work is that the end consumer gives prior informed consent to there bank to store details of there purchases and they allocate these tastes to an anonymous randomly generated prefix.
This prefix is then forwarded to Amazon & Co who then have the opportunity to tantalise the customer with offers like "You've bought X & Y in the past, can we interest you in Z for price £?".
No personal data has been divulged to a third party and if the customer hits no, the vending company knows not to suggest that deal again.
Yes I realise how much like Phorm this reeks of, but I'm talking of informed prior consent and no one is pimping your data underhand, just giving you the end user a chance to buy some shineys at a heavily discounted price.
Thoughts?
If after testing we determined that multiple choice meant that speed was an issue, then I'd propose borrowing Amazon's golden box idea. Once per day you were flashed up an offer that was just for you. The offer was so good it was hard to turn down - using my example above, maybe the Muse album for £5.99. If you didn't take it there and then, it was gone. And you'd get a different offer tomorrow.
Amazon already know your likes and so offers could be really quite personal. (Tesco could do something similar, too.)
I like the music angle as I think you're more prepared to buy music after listening to it (as you would in a pub/club etc). Perhaps offers would change depending on the time of day - music at night, books and DVDs in the day.
Those with no interest could, of course, opt out. And never be bothered again.
Regarding privacy, as said if the bank was Amazon's customer it wouldn't be an issue. But that would prevent Amazon from knowing what you like and making your golden box offer truly special. If the offers were generic (i.e., the current top 10) then the bank being the customer would work well.
Some people already spend ages on an ATM checking their balance, printing out receipts etc, and while nobody likes being stuck behind them this really wouldn't be any different.
The golden box idea is really the way forward with this - it radically cuts down on any time issues and if personalised could be a killer feature.
The issue I have with a lot of these is that we are constantly bombarded with adverts in everything we do. It gets to a point where they blend into the background even if they appear to stand out as the user is so focused on the task at hand etc.
They really need to integrate buying into applications. I would love to have a shopping app that let me add my favourite shops and then buy from there and have it all arrive at home.
This screen would just pop up between asking for your money and it that transaction being processed. Would take a few seconds for you to peruse the offer and decide whether to click 'buy' or not. Maybe a different button could allow you to see the top tens etc if there was nobody behind you in the queue.
Not that the latter really matters - people take their times at ATMs as it is, and while irritating if it's not you it isn't really anybody else's business. But as said it would be important to make this as quick and effortless as possible.
There would of course be hits and misses - that's kind of the point. No system can tailor the perfect offer to everybody every time. The offers would have to be very strong so that people on the fence would be swayed to click 'buy'. But not everybody wants Muse at £5.99, granted. But enough people do to make this very interesting indeed.
(Another way to do this is during setup you tick the boxes of the kinds of offers you'd like to see - music, books, DVDs, electronics, etc.)
It will probably end up happening in some form anyway. The amount of revenue streams the media industry generates it's surprising you are not wiping your arse with adverts - now there's an idea!