American Express (AmEx) has publicly announced that the financial services corporation has integrated blockchain technology in its Membership Rewards program. This integration has been carried out in partnership with a popular online merchant Boxed.
American Express has adopted blockchain technology that is developed by Hyperledger in order to allow merchants to create customized offers for American Express cardholders. This effort has been made to improve customer engagement.
The reason why AmEx has decided to incorporate the technology with the help of Boxed is that it wants Boxed to reward AmEx cardholders for purchasing some particular items. However, AmEx has the intention to make blockchain technology available to all its merchants in the next few months.
The Primary Reason for Adopting Blockchain Technology
According to the head of the Membership Rewards program of AmEx, Chris Cracchiolo: aside from promoting various items, implementing blockchain technology will allow AmEx and its merchant clients to design campaigns that are targeted at some of AmEx’s specific customers. The benefit AmEx merchants will get from this technology is that they will easily make product-targeted offers and keep a check on their inventory system as well at the same time.
The Kind of Rewards Merchants Will Give AmEx Cardholders
The merchant unit of AmEx will use blockchain technology for running a personalized reward system for customers. These rewards will be customer specific and will include digital currency, points, and other items related to the product. For more information about AmEx rewards, you can visit pointsbank.com.au.
How Will Blockchain Work for American Express
If you consider the trial result of blockchain at AmEx, you will note that AmEx cardholders will be able to earn up to five times more points on certain products. This was mentioned in the press release issued by the American Express representatives. The use of blockchain will prove to be the biggest application of American Express, considering that its Membership Rewards program is the company’s largest and the strongest asset that is present in 21 countries across the globe.
Is Blockchain Safe for American Express?
The implementation of blockchain technology at American Express is designed to keep the database secure, completely private, and anonymous. Moreover, it has been designed to make the system more transparent so that what merchants are offering can be checked closely by the company. The use of blockchain will also reduce onboarding time for the company’s new partners from months to just a few weeks. This way the company will be able to appoint new dealers in a shorter span of time than before.
For most of the people, it is difficult to believe that American Express is ready to explore the realm of blockchain technology yet. However, it’s worth taking notice that AmEx joined hands with Hyperledger, a Linux Foundation company, in 2017 and invested $12m in the Series A round of Abra back in September 2015.
All in all, now that American Express will be using its own blockchain platform, its merchants will be able to control both the offers they make and their membership bonus structure.