AMERICAN EXPRESS ANNOUNCES FIRST NATIONAL MERCHANT PARTNER FOR EXPRESSPAY FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS
NEW YORK, December 15, 2004 -- CVS and American Express today announced that CVS has agreed to become the first national merchant partner to accept ExpressPay from American Express. CVS has already ExpressPay-enabled POS terminals in 485 stores in Arizona, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kansas and Missouri and plans a full roll out to its entire fleet of more than 5,300 stores by mid-2005. American Express plans to expand ExpressPay's availability to consumers nationwide in 2005.
ExpressPay is a payment product which operates by radio frequency to make everyday purchases quick and easy. Users simply hold ExpressPay next to a reader at checkout to make purchases - payment is authorized in seconds, and no signature is required to complete a transaction. It is available as a fob that hangs on a key chain and can also be embedded in a traditional American Express Card. ExpressPay contains a robust set of fraud prevention features, including a unique digital signature that is validated for each transaction to help prevent counterfeiting. In addition, consumers are not liable for fraudulent charges.
American Express is currently conducting ExpressPay pilots in Phoenix, New York and Singapore. The Phoenix pilot includes participating locations at CVS, Carl's Jr., Fry's (Kroger) supermarket, Blimpie Subs & Salads, ChevronTexaco, Dairy Queen, Cold Stone Creamery, Ritz Camera, Schlotzsky's Deli locations and many others.
Based on the pilot results, American Express has concluded that ExpressPay provides significant value for consumers and merchants. Thousands of consumers are using ExpressPay in the pilots and they have conducted hundreds of thousands of transactions. Market research with pilot participants confirmed that consumers view convenience and simplicity of use as two of the major benefits. Important merchant benefits include reduced transaction time and increased spending relative to cash. American Express studies have shown the length of time for ExpressPay transactions is faster than both cash and traditional credit transactions. In addition, ExpressPay customers increased their average transaction size by 20% to 30% compared with their cash spending.
“We are very pleased with our pilot results and the potential of ExpressPay,” said David Bonalle, vice president and general manager of Advanced Payments, American Express. “This new payment product is delivering strong benefits to our cardmembers and CVS is a great partner because of their commitment to bringing extra value to their customers.”
“ExpressPay is another example of our commitment to making it “CVS Easy” for our customers to shop our stores,” said Jon Roberts, Senior Vice President of Store Operations. “ExpressPay offers a speedy, convenient alternative to traditional payment types, helping to improve the overall speed of checkout.”
ExpressPay adheres to ISO 14443, the interoperable standard that has been adopted by the major payment brands for conducting RF payments, otherwise known as contactless payments. Many leading POS and reader manufacturers are integrating RF into their POS equipment, enabling them to read ExpressPay and other RF payment products. The adoption of a common standard and the availability of RF solutions for the POS that are low cost and simple to implement is facilitating the rapid acceleration of RF payments in retail environments globally.
The introduction of ExpressPay continues American Express' tradition of innovation. American Express introduced the industry's first plastic credit card in 1959, and, in 1972, issued the first magnetic stripe card nationally. The company also was an early adopter and industry leader in leveraging the Internet to develop new products, expand its customer service, and improve its overall operations.
For more information about ExpressPay, visit www.americanexpress.com/expresspay.
American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel, financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a world leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, financial planning, business services, insurance and international banking.
CVS is America's number one retail pharmacy, with over 5,300 retail and specialty pharmacy stores in 36 states and the District of Columbia. With more than 40 years of dynamic growth in the retail pharmacy industry, CVS is committed to being the easiest pharmacy retailer for customers to use. CVS has created innovative approaches to serve the healthcare needs of all customers through its CVS/pharmacy stores, its online pharmacy, CVS.com and its pharmacy benefit management and specialty pharmacy subsidiary, PharmaCare Management Services. General information about CVS is available through the Investor Relations portion of the Company's website, at http://investor.CVS.com.
