We mined Amazon’s acquisitions, investments, and partnerships to discern the company's strategic priorities in financial services.
Amazon wants to be part of all of your financial transactions — even the ones that don’t take place on its platform.
The e-commerce giant has long had far-reaching financial ambitions, including introducing its own financial tools (e.g., credit cards, checking accounts, and lending) — not to mention its cashierless checkout tech for physical stores.
However, it has narrowed its focus in the past couple years, driven by a heightened need to find profitable and defensible pathways to growth.
It has also had to cut some of its losses. For instance, over the last 2 years, the retailer has largely closed its non-grocery brick-and-mortars. After a dramatic expansion in warehouse space, it’s now subleasing many of its distribution centers. And it has shrunk its corporate workforce across departments.
Looking forward, rather than launch more of its own fintech products, the company is embedding itself in more financial transactions via partnerships, investments, and acquisitions. It’s using these relationships to reach consumers across more geographies and a wider range of services.
Using CB Insights data, we uncovered 5 strategic priorities in financial services highlighted by Amazon’s business relationship activity since 2021. We then categorized companies by their relationships with Amazon across these priorities:
- Banking & wealth management
- Buy now, pay later (BNPL)
- Payments
- Small business support
- Unattended checkout
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