China is expected to become New Zealand’s largest tourism market by spend, reaching $3.1 billion annually by 2024. Is your business ready to welcome this growing market?
- Overview
- What is Alipay and WeChat Pay?
- Why accept Alipay and WeChat Pay?
- QR code payments
- Fast facts
Overview
ALIPAY/WECHAT PAY
ALIPAY
Based on a ‘digital wallet’, Alipay is used for everything from accessing credit, paying utility bills, ordering food for delivery, booking accommodation, and much more.
WECHAT PAY
WeChat started as messaging and social media mobile app, but has since developed into a ‘super app’ which, like Alipay, can be used for everything from making payment, booking flights or ride-hailing.
What is Alipay and WeChat Pay?
What is Alipay and WeChat Pay?
In China, many of the websites and apps we use in New Zealand every day are blocked. Alipay and WeChat Pay solve this problem by providing one-stop mobile apps that meet all their user’s needs.
Together the apps replace the likes of Facebook and Messenger or WhatsApp, Uber and Uber Eats, YouTube, Netflix, TripAdvisor, Booking.Com and many more.
As well as making in-app or online purchases, the apps can also be used to make payments instore using QR code-based payments. QR code mobile payments are now ubiquitous in China, and used for purchasing everything from a snack from a street vendor to apparel from high-end retailers and everything in between. 82% of all payments in China are made from a mobile phone and 90% of these are processed through Alipay and WeChat Pay.
WHAT IS WECHAT?
WeChat started as a messaging and social media app in 2011, but has since rolled out a range of new products and features that has made the app indispensable for it’s over 1.15 billion average active monthly users. WeChat is the most used communications tool in China. On average, users spend more than 66 minutes on WeChat daily messaging friends, checking their newsfeed or communicating with colleagues for work purposes. 60% of WeChat users open the app more than 10 times a day. With the app almost always open and ready-to-go for most users, it’s easy to see how WeChat Pay has taken a 40% share of the mobile payment market in China.
WHAT IS ALIPAY?
Alipay is a digital wallet solution developed by Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate company of ecommerce mega giant Alibaba. As well as offering online and offline payment, Alipay also offers peer-to-peer payments and a range of financial and lifestyle services including access to credit, insurance, food delivery, ride sharing and more. The app includes a platform that allows consumers to search for merchants that accept Alipay, which has evolved into a tool that Chinese consumers use to find things to do, places to go, products to buy and new things to experience. Alipay enjoys around a 55% share of the mobile payments market in China.
Why accept Alipay and WeChat Pay?
Why Kiwi businesses should accept Alipay and WeChat Pay
There are four key reasons why Kiwi businesses should accept Chinese Mobile Payments:
#1 The Chinese tourist market is growing
By 2024, visitors to New Zealand from China are expected to reach 800,000 a year and China is expected to become New Zealand’s largest tourism market by spend, reaching $3.1 billion annually.
Chinese residents and international students also use the Alipay and Wechat Pay apps to manage their money and make payments.
#2 Chinese travellers are high-value customers
Most international travellers spend 15% of their holiday budget on shopping, Chinese tourists spend around 25%. This translates to an average spend per person of $762 spent on shopping compared with $486 for other travellers.
#3 It’s their preferred payment method
As well as being seen as more secure than cash or cards, digital wallets offer the benefit of better exchange rates and access to credit and special deals. Your best bet for capturing the broadest cross-section of this market is to enable both Alipay and WeChat Pay acceptance on your EFTPOS terminal.
#4 Access powerful marketing platforms
Unlike other payment acceptance methods, Alipay and WeChat Pay enable you to promote your products and services to their users through their ‘discover’ platforms.
QR code payments
QR Code Payments
There are two methods businesses can use to accept payments from Chinese mobile wallets instore:
• a dynamic QR code; or
• a static QR code.
Static QR codes
This method involves displaying a printed QR code at your point of sale which customers paying with Alipay or WeChat Pay can scan to make payment. Using this method means your customer must enter the purchase amount into the app themselves, which introduces a risk of keying errors by the walletholder. Since the transaction is processed entirely in the app, it can be difficult to verify that the walletholder entered the correct purchase amount and successfully completed the transaction.
Dynamic QR codes
Our solution is an example of a dynamic QR code. The key benefits of using a dynamic QR code solution are that you (not the customer) are in control of entering the purchase amount and you can easily verify that the transaction was successful. When a customer chooses to pay with Alipay or WeChat Pay on your EFTPOS terminal, a QR code is generated which conveys the correct purchase amount. The payment flow is much like taking a regular card payment, except your customer authorises the transaction in the app instead of on the terminal. If the transaction is authorised correctly in the app, an accepted/approved message is displayed onscreen.
Using a dynamic QR solution means your EFTPOS terminal remains your primary point-of-payment instore and enables you to create a dynamic payment experience for every customer, regardless of their preferred payment method.
How it works
Accepting payments from Alipay and WeChat Pay on your Verifone EFTPOS terminal is easy:
Fast facts
WeChat Pay
- WeChat has over 1.15 billion monthly active users.
- Over 50 million businesses in China use WeChat Pay.
- WeChat users send 45 billion messages daily.
Alipay
- Alipay has over 1.2 billion users around the world.
- Alipay provides access to over 100 kinds of services from hailing cabs to booking medical appointments.
- “Over 160,000 coupons are downloaded by users every day,
among which 60% are redeemed when users pay via Alipay overseas” – Ant Financial
The opportunity
- There are 30 flights between China and New Zealand per week.
- In 2000 Chinese tourists made around 10.5m overseas trips, in 2018 they made 149.7m.
- Chinese travellers spend on average $762 per person on shopping compared with $486 for other travellers.
- In 2018 chinese students made up 32% of all international students in NZ.
- Visitors to New Zealand from China are expected to reach 800,000 a year by 2024.
- China is expected to become New Zealand’s largest tourism market by spend, reaching $3.1 billion annually.
Alipay & WeChat Pay
Offer your Chinese customers the option of paying with the method and currency they are familiar with, without complicating your existing payment solution.
- Accept Alipay and WeChat Pay payments on your EFTPOS terminal
- Free to enable on your terminal with low transaction fees
- Market on the Alipay app to attract wallet holders to your business
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We make Alipay & WeChat Pay acceptance easy
Upgrade with an easy remote download to your existing terminal
Get free POS signage to attract wallet holders to your business
Dynamic QR code displays on your terminal - simple for you and your customers to use
Favourable exchange rates, an inbuilt ‘buy now pay later’ option, and campaigns and offers encourage users to spend in your store
Compatible with Point of Sale integrated terminals
Get your marketing content set-up on the Alipay app, including translation, for free
Marketing with Alipay
Leverage the big data of the Alibaba ecosystem to accurately segment and drive offers to your target market before, during, and after their trip to New Zealand
Discover
Share a description of your products and services, plus coupons and promotional offers with a targeted group of shoppers.
Convert
52% of users who claim coupons on the Alipay Discover Platform become shoppers.
Attract
Users can claim your coupons before they even leave China. Once they're here, the app notifies them when they are near your store.
Retain
Drive your new customers to your website so they continue to purchase from you once they return home.
Marketing with WeChat Pay
McDonalds released a mini program with
discount coupons
WeChat Official Accounts
Authenticate and protect your brand, manage communication with customers and gain access to marketing and advertising tools on WeChat with an Official Account.
Mini Programs
Mini-programs are lite applications accessible via WeChat that enable you to provide features such as ecommerce and coupons to users, and easily integrate with WeChat functionality.
Get Started
Setting up an Official Account requires legal support based on mainland China. Talk to your WeChat services provider about setting up an Official Account. Don’t have one? Call 0800 EFTPOS to discuss your options