Operating in 127 markets, AmEx handles four billion transactions a year, making it the largest US credit card lender by volume of purchases.
The American Express Business Insights unit will analyse aggregate spend data to develop specific customer segment information for brands to help customise their marketing, using a model pioneered by UK store giant Tesco.
Like Tesco, AmEx will not share personal, identifiable data.
The credit card giant already offers AmEx partners database-derived insight on where they should advertise and locate stores.
But this new unit will offer the service to any business willing to pay for it.
AmEx says it believes its transactional data will help identify consumer spending trends and inform customer acquisition and retention, marketing and advertising strategies as well as customer relationship management.
"Our data is unique - no one else has this level of detail," Bill Glenn, president of Global Merchant Services at AmEx, and a former Pepsi and P&G marketing executive told one . "Other companies are doing lifestyle segmentation and modeling, but we're doing modeling off of transaction-level data."
It is not known if the insight service extends to the UK. A call to the AmEx UK press office had not yet been returned as this news article was published.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
