Amazon Gets Street Enthusiasm on Credit Card Plans

Amazon on category killer — it’s old hat in eCommerce and in the war against bricks-and-mortar. The retail landscape is littered with corporeal bodies slain by the digital upstarts. Amazon has come a long way since its warehouse days.

The latest salvo in its war against malls and big boxes and others comes as the company looks toward cards to buoy those inroads. As noted by Morgan Stanley via sell side research, the credit card is one that comes as the company re-ups its pact with J.P. Morgan, tied to a 5 percent cash-back incentive on Amazon buying activity.

Cash back is its own reward, and for Amazon, the effort may be one to engender customer loyalty. Business Insider notes that the Prime-only initiative also, per the investment bank, will lead to higher penetration rates. The higher penetration rates and the increased spend will lead to higher revenues, and there are signs that anticipation and intent are high.

As Morgan said, 13 percent of people who “do not already have an Amazon credit card say they are ‘very likely’ to sign up for either the enhanced Chase card or Synchrony card.” That seems enough to help the firm put a $900 price target on Amazon shares, which are currently at just about $849. In the meantime, Amazon has grabbed half the market share of online spending growth in the past year, as measured in the United States alone, per Slice Intelligence research.