An Official Website of the Barbados Government.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday April 25, 2019 – Western Union has unveiled a new payment option that allows Amazon customers in Barbados to pay in local currency for their Amazon.com purchases.
Barbados is the first Caribbean island where the option has been made available, after the service was rolled out in 10 countries – Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand – last year.
Western Union’s platform is powering Amazon’s new cross-border payment option, called Amazon PayCode, by processing the complex foreign exchange, settlement and money movement requirements for international e-commerce transactions. After selecting PayCode on the Amazon checkout page, customers will be sent a code, along with instructions on how to pay in person at a participating Western Union agent location.
Western Union said in a statement issued yesterday that the move provides greater access to online goods for customers who have largely been excluded from e-commerce shopping due to lack of accepted payment methods.
“We’re helping to unlock access to Amazon.com for customers who need and want items that can only be found online in many parts of the world,” said Khalid Fellahi, SVP and General Manager of Western Union Digital. “This is a great example of two global brands innovating and collaborating to bring customers more convenience and choice. In a world where cross-border buyers and sellers are often located on different continents and in completely different financial ecosystems, Western Union’s platform is ideally suited to solving the complexity of collecting local currency and converting it into whatever currency merchants need on the other end.”
Ben Volk, Director, Payment Acceptance and Experience at Amazon said the company is committed to enabling customers anywhere in the world to shop on Amazon.com, and a big part of that is allowing customers to pay for their cross-border online purchases in a way that is most convenient for them.
“Amazon PayCode leverages the reach of Western Union to make cross-border online shopping a reliable and convenient experience for customers who do not have access to international credit cards or prefer to pay in cash,” he said.
