“Shark Tank,” ABC’s hit reality show, has made a name for itself for being the first stop for emerging small business owners to get their big break into turning their little home enterprises into the next million (or possibly billion) dollar business. For those who make a deal, “Shark Tank” follows up with their success stories in its additional show, “Beyond the Tank.”
And last week (May 8), one boutique with Amazon ties was featured as one of the success stories. Red Dress Boutique, an Amazon Payments Customer, was featured on “Beyond the Tank.” Following its investment from billionaire Mark Cuban, the business has grown significantly (doubling profits in one quarter alone), and processes 20 percent of their payments via Amazon Payments. This business is just one example of how “alternative payment providers” help startups and SMBs grow by making the checkout process easier, Amazon Spokesman Tom Cook said.
In a recent Amazon blog post, the Red Boutique owners shared how they believe Login and Pay with Amazon has helped them solve for their business. Red Dress Boutique was started by Josh and Diana Harbour, a husband and wife business duo.
“Login and Pay with Amazon was an immediate success for us, even before promotion and advertising the option to our customers,” Josh Harbour said, according to the post. “…It really speaks to the convenience of what it is. One thing Amazon does well that a lot of smaller companies can’t do, is store the customer’s credit card information. A lot of smaller companies don’t have the infrastructure to safely hold personal credit card information. Holding all of that data would require a robust, secure infrastructure that Amazon has. For us, it’s cost prohibitive. I do not house credit card data, and I don’t want to,” the owners wrote in a blog post.
The business owners indicated that not having to dig for a credit card is a perk for its customers. Because most of its customer base has an Amazon account, the payment information is already stored, and with the click Login with Amazon, the preferred payment method is easy to pick without having to re-enter payment info, the owners said.
“Ultimately, the easier we make it for our customers, the more sales we are going to have,” Josh said, according to the post. “Several customers reached out on social media to tell us how much they loved Login and Pay with Amazon and how convenient it is. They’ve also told us how likely they are to make a purchase with us now because we have this feature.”
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