February brings new payment schemes

Corporations continue to invent new ways for consumers to pay for products and merchants to connect with consumers. On Feb. 5, 2013, American Express Co. synchronized its credit cards with Twitter Inc. to allow consumer purchases on the social media site. The following week, Boston-based mobile payment company LevelUp Inc. teamed with ShopKeep POS to allow merchants to build customer loyalty directly at the POS.

AmEx enables Twitter purchases

AmEx is enabling its customers to sync their bankcards with Twitter hashtags and use the social media service to buy American Express Gift Cards and products from companies such as Sony Corp., Amazon Inc. and Urban Zen Foundation. (A hashtag is a one-word tag prefixed with a hash sign that is embedded in a Twitter message).

Card members use AmEx's proprietary Card Sync technology to link payments with their Twitter accounts. Since March 2012, AmEx customers have been able to use Card Sync with Twitter to obtain couponless savings from merchants.

"Based on the initial success of AmEx Sync for offers, we know there is significant power in combining our assets with Twitter's platform to bring value to card members and merchants," said Leslie Berland, AmEx Senior Vice President of Digital Partnerships and Development. "Now, we're leveraging our unique technology and closed-loop network to introduce a seamless solution that redefines what's possible in the world of social commerce."

Loyalty via iPad

The partnership between ShopKeep POS and LevelUp is focused on merchants. LevelUp integrated its loyalty platform with the ShopKeep POS software for Apple Inc. iPads. The new integration allows merchants to make sales and accept LevelUp payments on the ShopKeep POS iPad register without having to switch POS devices.

ShopKeep POS consolidates LevelUp transactions with other transaction information into single reports that can be accessed from multiple devices. Merchants benefit from LevelUp's 0 percent payment processing fees and can participate in loyalty programs to retain customers.

LevelUp CEO and "Chief Ninja" Seth Priebatsch said, "By integrating with ShopKeep, we're making the process of accepting mobile payments easier than ever before. A big part of our continued quest to bring mobile payments to everyone is making LevelUp work seamlessly with the existing systems our merchants use every day."

Editor's Note:

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