This week American Express and Twitter announced a partnership to purchase via hashtag. For American Express customers that want to tweet to buy, they must first sync their American Express card with Twitter. The service will only work with compatible American Express cards (no prepaid or corporate cards) and a public Twitter account.
Here’s how it works once you’re a part of Amex Sync: when a user sees an item they want to purchase, they type a special hashtag. For example, AmEx is already offering a $25 gift card for $15 users can snag by posting the hashtag #BuyAmexGiftCard25. A reply from @AmexSync will include a confirmation hashtag. Users have 15 minutes to tweet the confirmation, then their item will be shipped to the billing address tied to their credit card.
Protected Twitter accounts aren’t allowed to participate in the program, so there’s no way to take advantage of a discount without it being public information. That means each purchase is not only money for the various companies involved, but also an automatic promotion for the product and its brands.
Right now the program is limited to a few select items. But, how many of you business owners that already accept American Express would be interested in providing a purchase option via Twitter?
Image Credit: Adrien Olczack
