NEW YORK—With premium credit cards, such as Chase’s Sapphire Reserve, elbowing in on the high-net-worth consumer turf of American Express, AmEx is fighting back.
One of its first moves, according to a Bloomberg report, is persuading more of America's 27.9 million small businesses to accept AmEx as payment, eventually achieving parity with Visa and Mastercard—a goal the company says it will reach by 2019.
“Many of those mom-and-pop businesses-florists, drycleaners, liquor stores-have been reluctant to pay for the privilege of having that sticker on the front door saying ‘American Express Cards Welcome,’" Bloomberg noted.
But in the past two years, AmEx efforts have led to more than 1.6 million small businesses joining its network.
It’s a strategy that is now bearing fruit, said Bloomberg. “Almost 75% of AmEx cardholders say they have used their card at a small business.”