American Express is muscling in on PayPal's territory with a new service that lets cardholders pay at participating online merchants with just a user ID and password.
Going live in the US today, Amex Express Checkout enables users to enter their existing American Express login details to confirm payments, with the card firm auto-filling all the information required.
Amex is working with Stripe, meaning that retailers that use the fast-growing payments outfit can easily integrate the new service. Burberry, Ledbury, Ticketmaster, and The Wall Street Journal, are among the merchants already onboard.
Amex says its system is safer than traditional checkouts, because card account information is transferred to the merchant through a token. And because the company auto-fills account information in real-time for every transaction, card numbers and billing details are always current.
Leslie Berland, EVP, digital partnerships and development, Amex, says: "Amex Express Checkout leverages our unique technology to create a checkout experience unlike any other, one that is valuable to merchants and secure for Card Members, giving them peace of mind."
Amex will face stiff competition in its quest to win over customers at the virtual checkout, with Visa, MasterCard, Google and Apple, as well as PayPal, all jockeying to be shoppers' buy button of choice.