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Amex and Twitter team up for Mobile Commerce

twitter-amex.jpgMobile Commerce seems to be going through a growth phase were many new approaches are being tried to see what consumers will like.

Recently venerable American Express partnered with social media powerhouse Twitter to let consumers purchase simply using #hashtags!

Here’s how it works:

  • The Amex cardholder “synchs” his card account and his twitter account on the secure American Express website.
  • Special offers are made – typically over twitter – each with its own unique hashtag assigned.
  • When a consumer decides to buy one of the offered products, they simply tweet the specific hashtag corresponding to that offer.
  • When Amex sees that a consumer has tweeted a offer hashtag, they check to see if the Twitter name is enrolled in this “Synch” program. If so, they send a special “confirmation hashtag” back to the consumer.
  • The consumer then has 15 minutes to tweet the “confirmation hashtag” to signal that they do in fact want to make the purchase.
  • When Amex sees the “confirmation hashtag” tweet, they enter the order. The product is then shipped to the address on the Amex card, and the payment is taken from the Amex card.

While this may sound a bit complex in description, in practice it is simple for the consumer: tweet the hashtag for the product you want, and then tweet the confirmation hashtag. That’s it: no need to enter card information, address information, or product information!

It is still too early to see what will be the consumer reaction and uptake on this new approach to e-commerce. However, there was fairly good response to a similar process that was launched last year which let Amex cardholders buy special discounts which are loaded onto their cards for later use at a specific retailer shop.


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