Developers Gain Access to Amazon for Social Logins

Amazon wants to be the online identity of choice for apps, games and sites with a service it calls Login with Amazon.

A true universal online identity may still be a far-off fantasy but Login with Amazon helps developers and site managers to reduce the amount of IDs and passwords that confuse and infuriate users around the web.

The move opens a smoother way for Amazon’s 200 million active customers to join and login into sites with a more familiar ID and password. Amazon is offering developers code samples and software development kits for Android and iOS that are designed to help developers integrate and launch an OAuth 2.0 authorization framework in a few hours, according to the online retailer.

Amazon highlighted some early results following the implementation of Login with Amazon at its subsidiaries Woot and Zappos.

According to Amazon, 40 percent of Zappos new customers chose to sign in with an Amazon account. Meanwhile at Woot, new customers picked Login with Amazon twice as often as any other social login on the site. Those Woot customers also outperformed their counterparts with the highest rate of order conversion, according to Amazon.

“Login with Amazon enables app developers and website owners to leverage Amazon’s trusted sign-in solution, allowing them to focus on providing a great experience for their customers,” Michael Carr, vice president of e-commerce services, says in a prepared statement. “Amazon customers now have a hassle-free way to quickly and securely sign-in to apps, games and websites, without having to remember yet another password.”

Sites can customize users’ experiences based on Amazon’s data, and eventually connect the new login service Amazon’s other developer tools including its Web services, cloud storage, GameCircle, in-app purchases, A/B testing, Game Connect and finally the Amazon AppStore.