Is any retailer going to actually be willing to trust amazon though? And what if it doesn't work and the customer ends up not paying - is amazon also taking on the liability for that?
And as you point out, any time Amazon strikes up a "partnership" with outside parties, its ultimate goal is to conquer or cannibalize them.
Businesses should approach partnerships with Amazon with the same level of skepticism/trepidation as Native Americans signing a treaty with the U.S. government 150-200 years ago.
Retailers already rely on the trust of dozens if not hundreds of vendors for operations. Trust is established through contractual obligations, pilot programs, etc.
Shrinkage in the US is about 1.38% on average currently. Any competent retailer would run a pilot and evaluate its effect on shrinkage rates.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-to-vendors-get-off-ama...
Yeah, I wonder how retailers are going to feel about amazon having a direct pipeline of purchase data at all their competitors fed directly to a division of the company that I'm sure they'll claim is sealed off from the rest of operations. Even if amazon is playing totally fairly here, I don't see why it makes sense for people to trust them with so much at risk