Morning Brief 10.2.19: Amazon's grocery store chain gets closer to launch

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:

Amazon supermarket

Beyond Amazon Go and Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods is a relatively lesser known plan for Amazon to open its own supermarkets, a strategy that's starting to pick up steam.

Amazon has signed leases for more than a dozen stores in the Los Angeles area, according to The Wall Street Journal, which notes the stores are distinct from Amazon Go and Whole Foods. Other stores will also open soon in Chicago and Philadelphia. The locations are mostly outside urban cores and will include prepared foods and mainstream groceries.

Amazon's foray into traditional retail includes book stores, which have opened in New York, New Jersey and other markets.

Giulio Napolitano/Bloomberg

Government appeal

A group of technology companies including Paytm and Uber have formed a group to push the Indian government to step up payment fraud prevention.

The companies have held talks with the Reserve Bank of India about fake account generation, fake toll-free numbers and other forms of cyberattacks, reports TimesNowNews, a local publication. The companies have also approached Google to investigate the possibility that crooks are gaming searches to make web payment scams appear prominently.

Regulations that govern payment fraud in India are often a point of contention, particularly since the government has installed requirements that foreign payment companies store data inside India, which external companies contend causes fraud risk by reducing information sharing.

Slip of paper

As open banking progresses in Australia, collaborations between technology companies and fintechs are starting to take shape.

National Australia Bank is collaborating with Slyp to build a digital receipt product that's available through the bank's mobile app. The feature enables users to scan and store receipts for record-keeping, as well as make payments.

The bank is hoping to reach a range of small businesses that have turned to mobile point of sale startups over the past few years by tying cash management more tightly to mobile banking.

Dining out

Google is extending its payment and merchant technology activities in India through a partnership with Dineout to support restaurant searches, reservations and ordering.

The service will be available in about 17 cities, reports the Economic Times, adding Google recently launched an incentive marketing and loyalty program for restaurants in India.

Google has made several moves in India's payment market over the past few months, such as adding security, opening an AI developers' hub and adding support for train ticket payments.

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