Designing an Option for Amazon App Customers to Defer Paying for Purchases

You are a product manager asked to design a "Pay Later" option for the Amazon app: a way for customers to get what they order now and pay for it afterward. Explain what the feature should achieve for customers and for Amazon, who it is for, how it would work from checkout to the final payment, and how you would judge whether it is succeeding. ```hint Follow the money both ways Picture a customer who drops out of checkout because of the total, then picture the same customer a few months later; the design has to work at the first moment without failing at the second. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should the option cover every purchase in the app, including digital content and subscriptions, or only retail orders? - Does "pay later" mean one deferred payment after a grace period, a split into installments, or either, and may Amazon charge interest or fees? - Is Amazon expected to lend and carry the credit risk itself, or may it work with a lending partner? - Which country or countries are in scope, given that consumer-credit rules differ between them? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A stated goal for the feature, with how it serves customers and Amazon's business - Customer segments compared, with one chosen and the reason - An end-to-end flow from product page to final payment, including how eligibility and limits are decided - Credit risk, fraud, returns and regulation treated as design inputs, each with a mitigation - A primary success metric with guardrails that cover both business results and customers' financial health ### Follow-up Questions - What should happen when a customer returns an item while part of its price is still unpaid? - Would you build the lending capability inside Amazon or partner with an existing lender, and what would change your mind? - If adoption is strong but late payments climb among newer customers, what would you change first?