Image used with permission by copyright holderYou might use Amazon.com to buy things online, but if Amazon has its way, you’ll soon be using the company’s services for shopping on other sites, too.

　　The Amazon Payments Global Partner Program will essentially help e-commerce providers integrate Amazon Payments into their services. What does this mean? Instead of handing your credit card info to any online store that you shop at, you’ll be able to checkout using Amazon Payments, a service that already has your payment information from your Amazon account.

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　　It’s important to note that there is a difference between the new service and what Amazon already offers. Individual merchants can already include a “Login and pay with Amazon” feature, but this new program is aimed at the e-commerce platforms that provide secure payment features to those merchants, instead of just the individual merchants. At launch there are a number of partners, including PrestaShop, Shopify, and more.

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　　The new features aren’t just beneficial for Amazon, they also could prove very useful for merchants and customers. Integrating Amazon Payments into a website would eliminate the need for you to create a new username and password, making the checkout process quicker and ideally increasing the number of customers willing to buy products on that website. For customers, the program will make it easier to buy things online, which is always a good thing.

　　The program will have tiers, and partners will fall into one of those depending on their status, number of customers, and so on. The tiers include Premier Partner, Certified Partner, and Certified Developer. Currently, the program is invite only and available in the United States, Germany, Japan, and the U.K.

　　It makes sense that Amazon would want to ramp up its Amazon Payments efforts to compete with the likes of PayPal and Apple Pay. The fact that Amazon already has 285 million account holders is also sure to help the company expand its payment ambitions rapidly.