Pan-European payments provider SIX and Chinese mobilepayments pioneer Alipay respond to a major retail trend by planning to supportmerchants in tapping into the potential of millions of new customers. Users ofthe popular Chinese payment App Alipay will soon be able to pay at SIX paymentterminals across Europe.
Today, SIX Payment Services and Alipay, the third-partypayment and lifestyle platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group,announced their close cooperation for the acceptance of POS and E-Commercepayments across Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, Alipay’s paymentservice will be integrated into the payment application of SIX in order toenable merchant clients of SIX to accept Alipay payments from Alipay users.
Huge potential for European merchants
Merchants have benefitted from the influx of Chinesetourists in Europe for several years now. In 2015 alone, Chinese tourists spent292 billion dollars. This trend is far from reaching its peak and millions ofChinese Travelers are expected to visit Europe in the coming years. The abilityto address the specific payment requirements of Chinese customers can be adifferentiating factor for merchants in retail and hospitality. Alipay is theleading payment service provider in China, with more than 450 million users, amarket share of 80% in mobile payments. Alipay customers are typicallytechnology-savvy and enjoy using of their mobile phone to effect fast andsimple payments.
SIX and Alipay are also looking at offering value addedservices to merchants, with a specific focus on marketing support and customeractivation in the target segment. Alipay has already embedded its ‘GlobalLifestyle Platform’ in the Alipay app to connect merchants and customers.
Rita Liu, Head of Alipay Europe, says: “The cooperation withSIX gives Alipay access to a broad merchant base across Europe: potentiallyAlipay users will be able to pay at 110.000 additional merchants in Switzerlandand beyond. As our preferred partner, SIX takes us one step further in becominga truly globally accepted payment system.” SIX Payment Services has acustomer base of 220.000 merchants locations in Switzerland, Luxemburg,Austria, Germany and many other European countries.
Jürg Weber, Division CEO SIX Payment Services, says: «Byintegrating Alipay into our portfolio we take another step to ensure that SIXis the best partner for merchants. It is our strategy to be able to process allkinds of payments and Alipay as a strongly growing payment tool must be part ofour portfolio. Chinese tourists demand to pay with their established solutionalso at European merchants. SIX is happy to offer this payment method soon.»