American Express designs 'Xtraordinary Weekends' program for cardmembers and merchants

Company Brief

New Delhi, September 24, 2009

While the overall economic scenario has made consumers cautious towards spending, American Express along with its merchant partners is trying to make every rupee work harder for their valued customers. With customers making over 50% of their retail spends over the weekend, American Express has designed a weekend program called “American Express Xtraordinary Weekends”, to provide enhanced value to both its Cardmembers and merchants.

The program is built to deliver strong value to Cardmembers by offering 5 times rewards points for all their retail and dining spends over the weekend. In addition, Cardmembers will get special offers from merchants in everyday spend categories like movies, quick service restaurants, laundry, apparels, pharmacies amongst others. These special offers can be availed by American Express Cardmembers on using their American Express Card for their weekend spends starting Friday through Sunday, making their weekends truly extraordinary.

Detailing the success of this program Mr. Sunil Sachdev, Vice President – Market Head, Merchant Services International, India & Area, American Express said, “The Xtraordinary weekend program has been specifically designed to deliver extraordinary value to American Express customers - Cardmembers and Merchants. Through this program, we have successfully ensured greater customer traffic to merchant partners as early indicators show a 30% increase in customer transactions. On the other hand for customers, it is a unique opportunity to leverage weekend shopping to earn additional reward points as well as access the best value deals exclusively offered to American Express Cardmembers”.

Speaking on CCD's participation in American Express' Xtraordinary Weekends program, Ms. Bidisha Nagaraj, President - Marketing Café Coffee Day, said, “This is an exciting initiative and we are delighted to partner with AXP to drive greater benefits for our customers. We believe this is undisputedly one of the most rewarding programs for our customers”

Elaborating on how the program has helped TGIF enhance customer engagement, TGIF Spokesperson, said “The bedrock of our customer engagement proposition is always about providing added value and rewarding the customer. Such innovative programs help us deliver greater value to our common customers, thereby increasing our sales”

Some of our merchant partners participating in the Xtraordinary weekend program include leading names Café Coffee Day, Neemrana Hotels & Resorts, Make my trip, Select City Walk, Da Milano, Croma, Shyam Ahuja, The Bombay Store, Epicenter, TGIF, and Guardian Pharmacy among others.

For further information, please contact:

American Express

Sanjay Chaudhary

Mobile: 9810203810

Email: Sanjay.Chaudhary@aexp.com