American Express has launched American Express Business Insights, a new analytics and consulting organization, to help business customers develop better-informed strategies to grow their business. The new organization will be housed within the American Express global merchant services unit.

Business Insights combines world aggregate trend analysis to provide business planning and marketing expertise. It will identify strategic opportunities drawn from the aggregate spending patterns on approximately 90m cards in force across 127 markets.

It will work with business clients to provide data-driven insights focused on specific customer segments that are expected to help them to develop customized marketing and growth strategies.

American Express said that it will deliver a range of consulting applications that include identifying consumer spending trends, new product innovation, geographic expansion, customer acquisition and retention, marketing and advertising strategies, customer relationship management and procurement processes.

Bill Glenn, president of global merchant services at American Express, said: “Our ability to interpret trend patterns across the American Express global network represents an unprecedented reserve of competitive insights for businesses that are fighting hard every day to improve their offerings and reach their customers more effectively.

“Using the power of the American Express network, we can help companies make smarter, more rigorous, and more customer-focused decisions – delivering a real competitive advantage in a continually challenging market environment.

“Businesses constantly wrestle with thorny questions like which markets to enter or expand, where to open new stores and how to define their ideal customer by seeking answers from research that is usually an arm’s length removed from real world behavior. Business Insights brings an entirely fresh perspective to solving these age-old questions.”