Another day, another shot fired in the digital wallet war. Today, it’s American Express debuting Express Checkout—an online payment offering that is clearly a shot across PayPal’s bow:
“AmEx Express Checkout is similar to the way PayPal works. If you see an AmEx checkout button when paying for an item with an online merchant, you login using your AmEx online credentials, choose the AmEx card you want to pay with, and the transaction is complete. AmEx will autofill all the shipping and billing information as well. And the card member’s account information is transferred to the merchant securely, says AmEx.
“As a security protection, each time card members click on the AmEx Express Checkout button on a merchant site, they will be required to login.”
Much like PayPal, AmEx is betting that consumers will value the convenience and security of logging into a single account to make a purchase rather than re-entering payment and shipping info for every purchase. Unlike PayPal (and most other digital wallet providers), Express Checkout will only be compatible with AmEx cards.
We will see how consumers (and PayPal) respond.
Overview by Alex Johnson, Sr. Analyst, Credit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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