The service sees credit-card holders post a specific hashtag on Twitter to trigger payments from their accounts. In order to use its purchase-by-tweet facility, Amex members must first link their card to their Twitter account via the financial services firm's app. They then need to go to the firm's Twitter page and select the Favourites section to view which items are on sale and the associated hashtags.
Next, after sending an initial tweet to start the sales process, they must wait for a confirmation message from the @AmexSync account. This contains another hashtag that must be posted in a fresh tweet by the user within 15 minutes to make the sale to go through.
This is not Amex's first tie-up with social media. It already operates a voucher-free discount scheme with Foursquare - a location-based network - in the UK and US. It has also offered savings to users who tweet promoted hashtags - such as #AmexWarby - listed on its Twitter account.
Products from Amazon, Sony and Microsoft are being offered at a discount to entice shoppers to use the new service.
