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SALT LAKE CITY — American Express and Twitter announced a partnership this week that will allow cardholders to purchase items through the social network by tweeting about them.
American Express members who sync their card to the service will be able to by products by including a specific hashtag — often "amex" or "buy" in front of the product name — in a tweet. The @AmexSync account will reply with a confirmation hashtag, which then has to be tweeted.
American Express then sends a confirmation email that gives users 15 minutes to confirm they want to buy the product. At that point, the card is charged and the product is shipped to the billing address associated with the card.
It seems like a lot of tweeting to buy an item, but there is a hook: items available for purchase through Twitter are often discounted below retail price. The $199 Kindle Fire HD was available for purchase Wednesday for only $149 by using the hashtag "#BuyKindleFireHD."
The tweet was one of the first sent by @AmericanExpress to promote the new service, and more than a dozen cardholders responded to purchase the item.
The full list of available deals can be followed on the company's favorites list.
Get Kindle Fire HD for $149.99+tax w/synced Amex Card. Tweet #BuyKindleFireHD to start purch! QtyLtd, Exp 3/3 Terms: amex.co/W4XqIb
— American Express (@AmericanExpress) February 13, 2013
In what is perhaps a stroke of marketing genius, only public Twitter accounts can use the service — meaning every tweet users send to purchase an item is broadcast to all of that person's followers, assuming the person does not mention American Express or Amex Sync at the start of the tweet.
That equates to free advertising for American Express and the companies involved, and all without Twitter taking a cut. The benefit for Twitter, though, is more American Express members creating Twitter accounts in order to get discounts. There is one problem, though: hacks happen fairly regularly on Twitter, including a Feb. 2 incident in which 250,000 accounts were compromised.
The security issue may become a hurdle Twitter has to surmount before users are willing to trust the service, although American Express has clarified that Twitter never has access to the credit card information; it is all with AmEx.
Some cardholders may be ready to jump on the tweeting bandwagon, though, after seeing the company successfully launch other social media initiatives, including the Amex Sync service started in March that, along with Twitter, offers discounts on Facebook, Foursquare and Xbox Live. It remains to be seen, though, if its members will be excited enough to give it a boost in an e-commerce world dominated by web giants like Amazon.
