American Express launches mobile app to offer relevant merchant discounts

Last week American Express launched a 'mobile offer engine'. It is a mobile app that recommends and ranks relevant merchant offers in real time for US cardmembers based on their spending history and location.

It is an industry first and the service is currently being piloted in New York and Los Angeles with an overlay of offers available nationwide at merchants such as Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin' Donuts ( I’m more of a Krispy Kreme girl myself, chocolate and cream in case you’re interested)

President of the US consumer services group at American Express,  Josh Silverman said: "In an increasingly crowded marketplace, where consumers are bombarded with daily deals, we saw an opportunity to help our cardmembers save time as well as money by curating meaningful offers for them."
The mobile offering is being piloted via the new "My Offers" feature on the American Express iPhone App.

My Offers is the next iteration of American Express'  Smart Offer technology, which powers the company's card sync programs with Facebook, Twitter and foursquare and leverages the company's closed loop network to connect Cardmembers and merchants.

Will Visa and MasterCard be hot on the heels ?

Have you been testing out the new app at Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins?? All in the name of market research of course...

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PayPal announces Card Reader, app for Android, iOS

PayPal has announced a new mobile payment service involving a Card Reader and an app for the service called PayPal Here.

PayPal, has launched a new service to enable mobile payments named PayPal Here.

PayPal Here works in tandem with a small device that needs to be plugged into an Apple iPhone or Android based smartphone and used with a specific app. The PayPal Here app can be used to accept any type of credit card, debit card and even cash. The PayPal Here device and service will be immediately made available to selected merchants in the US, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong.

PayPal Here is the new mobile payment service that will let you pay using your credit card or debit card from practically anywhere. A small triangular dongle - Card Reader, needs to be plugged to the merchant's device and the PayPal Here app needs to be loaded on the iPhone or an Android smartphone. After that the merchant simply swipes users' credit/debit card across the dongle to initiate the transaction. Then the merchant has to enter the CVV and the other details. A receipt can then be printed using Apple's AirPrint wireless printing service.

Alternatively, the PayPal Here app can be used to scan the credit card or debit card using the smartphone's camera. The Merchant can then proceed with the transaction process. In any case, the merchant requires the customer to enter the CVV code and only then successfully complete the transaction. Besides enabling mobile payment, the PayPal Here app will offer integration to the merchant's inventory, invoices and billing systems.

It is interesting to see PayPal offer such  an innovative solution while mobile payments through Near Field Communication technology is still some time away from becoming a mainstream payment method.

 PayPal has already released a Widget that allows payments via NFC technology.

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