PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) and American Express have expanded their strategic partnership to deliver an integrated experience for users of both companies.
PayPal and American Express Expand Partnership
Businesses and consumers will be able to sell, buy, pay, accept payments, send, receive and even allow cardholders to use Membership Rewards points when shopping with PayPal merchants. For American Express, it means access to tens of millions of users around the world, and for PayPal, it is yet another partnership for improving its digital payment processing.
Small businesses using PayPal will now have access to card members with Membership Rewards points. This means more than 112 million American Express cardholders around the world can now spend their rewards points on PayPal.
PayPal has been forming partnerships with the likes of Apple, Google, Samsung, Walmart, Visa and Mastercard. For many of the small business owners who use PayPal, this means they can accept payments from a larger customer base under one payment system without having to worry about third-party integration.
This is exactly what Stephen J. Squeri, Chairman and CEO of American Express points out in a recent press release. Squeri explains, “Together we will streamline and expand the online and mobile payments experience for our Card Members, helping us become a more essential part of their digital lives,”
The President and CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman adds, “Our new partnership expands PayPal’s ubiquity, and enables us to offer consumers and merchants new and innovative product experiences.”
More Access for American Express Card Members
More than anything, this partnership gives American Express Card Members access to more services as it becomes integrated into the PayPal ecosystem.
Cardmembers can now use their Amex mobile app to send money via Venmo or PayPal to friends and family directly. As peer-to-peer transactions become more popular for sending money and making payments, Amex members will now be able to carry out these transactions on two proven platforms.
Amex members can also add their cards to the PayPal wallet from the Amex mobile app or website as well as paying their bill with their PayPal or Venmo balance via the PayPal Instant Transfer feature.
Win Win for Both Companies
The Benefits for PayPal and the millions of small businesses using it will be getting American Express-funded purchases at the point of sale.
As for American Express, the company now has another outlet for its members so they can offload their unused rewards points. This is a problem card issuing companies face as members hold on to these funds without using them.
By making these points available on PayPal’s platform, American Express is able to reduce the number of unused points at a lower cost.
You will start seeing the implementation of all these and other features between American Express and PayPal throughout 2019.
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