Amazon Pay, the digital arm of e-commerce major Amazon, has launched a service for its users to invest in digital gold.
The company said that its “Gold Vault” feature will act as an investment tool and provide the users an opportunity to keep in their possession the precious metal which is considered a safe investment.
Gold prices have been rising rapidly in the last few weeks due to global volatility and weakening of US dollar.
The Amazon Pay users will have the flexibility to keep gold in a digital locker and buy or sell the precious metal without having to rent a locker. The company said that its vault will be totally secure.
The users will be able to buy gold for as little as Rs 5 on the platform for which Amazon has partnered with SafeGold. The gold being offered is of 24 carat with 99.5 per cent purity, the company said.
With this offering, Amazon Pay has joined the likes of Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay and Mobikwik who allow users to buy digital gold on their respective platforms. While Paytm launched the service in 2017, Mobikwik started offering gold investment on its platform in 2018. Google Pay finally allowed users to invest in digital gold in April last year.
Mint, the business publication of the Hindustan Times group, reported that Paytm claimed to have sold 37 kilogram of digital gold on the occasion of Akshay Tritiya in April. PhonePe, meanwhile, claimed that 100 kilogram of gold transactions took place on its platform this year, Mint reported.
Digital transactions received a boost when a nationwide lockdown was imposed in the country to check thr spread of the coronavirus disease. Various other entities, including gold, was also given a boost by different e-commerce platforms to allow users to buy the precious metal since they were not able to visit a store.
Amazon Pay has been aiming to launch various other financial services in the Indian market. It partnered with Ecko General Insurance to offer two-wheer and four-wheeler insurance in India.
