Amazon launches virtual gold buying feature ‘Gold Vault’

E-commerce major Amazon has launched a virtual gold buying and selling option called ‘Gold Vault’. The move would potentially pose a direct competition to Paytm, PhonePe, Mobikwik, ET Money and Google Pay’s digital gold services. 

The users can buy and sell the virtual gold-stock any time at the latest price, which gets refreshed every 5 minutes and can be accessed under the Insurance category of Amazon Pay on the main app. 

Confirming the development to Entrackr, an Amazon Pay spokesperson, said, "We believe in innovating on behalf of our customers to create newer experiences for them. This has led to Amazon Pay launching digital gold services in partnership with Safegold."

"SafeGold makes saving in gold as convenient as possible, and we have an exciting roadmap of product features ahead, including delivery and exchange for jewelry,'' added the person quoted above.

While the gold can be purchased in multiple transactions of any denomination and accumulated over a long period, every purchase made is placed in a secure vault backed by the government regulated security trustee. 

One can buy gold as low as Rs 1 or 2 gm. Importantly, the EMI option couldn’t be used for buying gold since regulations do not allow it. The value of gold purchased can be redeemed at any time as cash into the respective bank account. 

Amazon has partnered Safegold (Digital Gold India Pvt Limited) as the partner-seller. Safegold is an institutionally backed company, primarily owned by Invent Advisors Private Limited (Invent). The World Gold Council (India) Private Limited, as well as various other investor funds, hold minority stakes in the company.

This is the second major launch by Amazon in India this week and the third in 2020. Last week, the Jeff Bezos led company forayed into e-pharmacy with the launch of Amazon Pharmacy and initiated an online food ordering service in May. 

At present, the digital gold buying facility is contested by the likes of PhonePe, GooglePay, Paytm, and ET Money. Paytm Gold, which claims to lead the digital gold market with a 70% share, said that more than 30 million customers had transacted over 4.2 tons of gold till October 2019.

(This post has been updated after receiving the inputs from Amazon.)