Major retailers are hoping to spur more purchases through a new retail merchandising venture launched by American Express and Twitter.

The two companies have teamed up to provide consumers with discounts by tweeting certain retail hashtags. For example, consumers shopping at Whole Foods Market can receive a $20 credit on a future purchase of $75 or more at the store by tweeting #AmExWholefoods.

Shoppers looking to take part in the program simply have to visit the American Express website and sync their credit card with Twitter. The discounts will then be automatically applied when users tweet a specific hashtag.

"I really believe that this is turning tweets into transactions," American Express executive Elizabeth Rutledge told CNN Money. "We need to be where our customers are. They're on these platforms using them every day."

Currently, 16 retailers are participating, including H&M, Whole Foods Market, FedEx and Best Buy. Whether more retailers will be added remains unclear.