'Net Features : American Express

Twitter Allows AmEx Customers to Buy Products by Tweeting

Michael Garrity — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:35:00 GMT

Will that be cash, check or…tweet?

Yesterday, Twitter announced the kind of shocking news that users will now be able to pay for products by simply tweeting thanks to a new integrated payment system from American Express.

This feature is known as Amex Sync, and as the name suggests, it allows Twitter users to sync their American Express cards with their accounts on the social network (which means, of course, that this ability is currently limited to American Express customers only). Once the two accounts have been merged, users can buy selected items by including special hashtags in their tweets.

Once users have tweeted this hashtag, they’ll receive a response from the @AmexSync Twitter account; after that, all they have to do is tweet the confirmation hashtag within 15 minutes and the transaction is completed. All products will be delivered to the billing address that the user has on file.

Amex Sync was actually originally launched last year, but at the time it just let customers receive special offers, discounts or deals by tweeting specific hashtags; this new ability to purchase items was apparently the next logical step in the partnership between the two brands. It is particularly advantageous for Twitter, as the partnership provides a new source of revenue for a website that has long been reliant almost solely on advertising dollars.

At present, American Express has said that users can purchase “American Express Gift Cards and products from Amazon, Sony, Urban Zen and Xbox 360” using the Amex Sync payment system.

I guess all that’s left to do now is sit back and see if social commerce on Twitter takes off and finds greater success than it has so far on Facebook, where the results have (for the most part) been disappointing, at best.

Don't Forget Small Business Saturday

Allison Howen — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:50:00 GMT

There is no doubt that as November approaches, retailers certainly have Black Friday and Cyber Monday top of mind. With that being said, they should also not forget about Small Business Saturday.

American Express formed Small Business Saturday three years ago to create exposure for small businesses within the United States. The Small Business Saturday campaign asks consumers to support their local small businesses on the day after Black Friday, which is November 24th. Last year, more than one hundred million people came together to participate in shopping at small businesses within their communities.

The best part of the Small Business Saturday campaign is that it provides small businesses with free and local advertising. To participate, merchants simply need to visit American Express’s dedicated website to download free marketing materials, which include email templates, online banners and personalized signage. Furthermore, qualifying merchants can receive free geo-targeted online advertising that drives traffic to either their website or Facebook Page. It is also important to note that the Small Business Saturday website even includes pre-written social media posts, to help businesses and consumers spread the word.

However, since Small Business Saturday falls during the busiest shopping season of the year, participating merchants should definitely take a little time to plan ahead. For example, merchants should consider creating an exclusive promotion for November 24 that will attract consumers into their businesses or onto their websites. Once that has been accomplished, merchants should focus on promoting their special through multiple channels, such as on their website, on their social profiles and within their email marketing campaigns.

Here Come the Sponsored Tweets

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:45:00 GMT

Is the Twitter-verse ready for more in-stream ads? Well, ready or not, here they come.

Self-serve advertisements from Twitter were announced yesterday for a limited number of the 10,000 American Express cardholders that signed up back in February 2012.

American Express began notifying a small group of eligible card members and merchants that they can start advertising on Twitter immediately - the remainder will be notified over the coming weeks.

Advertisers using the small business ad platform have quite the interesting set of features. Whether that feature set is enough to draw advertisers and their budgets away from the likes of Google and Facebook is another story.

Advertisers will be able to gain new followers by promoting their Twitter accounts, amplify their most engaging tweets automatically, and pay per follower for promotion accounts and per egnagemetn (click, retweet, reply and favorite. Most interesting to the small business advertiser set is that targeting is available – so those interesting in limiting their reach to specific countries or metropolitan areas can do so.

Are you advertising on Twitter right now? If so, share your experience so far with Website Magazine readers by commenting below.

New Digital Payment Platform from American Express

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:30:00 GMT

American Express today unveiled a digtal payment and commerce platform to address the changing ways consumers interact and exchange money - with one another and with merchants. Dubbed Serve, consumers can make purchases and person-to-person payments online via mobile phones, and at merchants accepting American Express cards. While this is not an alternative to merchants existing payment processing solutions, it could act as a good supplement.

“We intend to quickly evolve the Serve platform by adding new features and functionality as we learn from consumer and merchant experiences. To encourage a broad cross-section of people to experience the benefits and convenience of Serve, we are working with a range of partners to integrate Serve as a payment method and deliver customized offers, and we will waive most consumer fees for the next six months,” said Dan Schulman, Group President, Enterprise Growth, American Express.

Payments are the primary focus of the consumer-focused Serve platform, but a number of American Express partners will use the platform to deliver offers. Three of the first are Ticketmaster, Concur and Flipswap. Ticketmaster will offer Serve as a platform for customers to make and collect payments toward ticket purchases from other customers. Concur will utilize Serve as an expense management and reimbursement method for transactions processed via Concur’s small business expense reporting service, Concur Breeze. Flipswap will utilize Serve to issue refunds more quickly to consumers who sell or trade in their old mobile and cell phones for reuse or recycling.

“A cornerstone of the long-term vision for Serve is developing partnerships with commerce, gaming, entertainment, and social networking organizations,” said Mr. Schulman. Partnerships, with players such as Ticketmaster, Concur and Flipswap will introduce Serve to new customers and help build scale. These companies have loyal communities of customers, and we are thrilled to partner with them as we grow and expand Serve's reach.”

SearchManager Simplifies Ad Campaigns for Small Businesses

Linc Wonham — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:00:00 GMT

A new search marketing tool will allow small business owners to manage paid search campaigns across Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter and Facebook ads from the same dashboard. The new SearchManager is powered by Clickable and offered through the American Express Small Business OPEN Forum.

American Express is offering a 30-day free trial for customers interested in SearchManager. The company estimates that nearly three-quarters of today’s entrepreneurs are not spending money on search-engine marketing, despite the fact that Google alone generated more than $50 billion for U.S. businesses in 2009.