Barclaycard Partners with Alipay to Help UK Merchants Increase Sales from Booming Chinese Tourism

Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, today announced a new agreement with Alipay, the world’s leading payment and lifestyle platform, which will allow retailers to accept Alipay transactions in stores across the UK.

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Building on a successful pilot over the past two years, the new agreement will enable UK retailers to take full advantage of the growing volume and buying power of Chinese visitors. In addition to the UK’s 393,000 Chinese residents¹ and 95,000 Chinese students², tourists from China represent an increasingly important customer segment for retailers. VisitBritain is expecting 483,000 visits from China in 2019, up 43 per cent on 2017, with Chinese visitors expected to spend more than £1 billion this year, up 50 per cent, moving it well into the UK’s top 10 tourism markets³. The increase in market size is also demonstrated by the fact that the number of Alipay users in the UK has doubled in the last year.

By accepting Alipay, the world's most-used app in 2018 outside of social apps according to App Annie⁴, retailers will be able to capitalise on the growing appetite of Chinese tourists to use mobile payments over cash while abroad. According to a 2018 survey conducted by Nielsen, the vast majority (93 per cent) of Chinese tourists said they would likely spend more in a store that accepted mobile payments. In addition, among the merchants surveyed that had adopted Alipay, nearly 60 per cent said that they had clearly seen growth in both foot traffic and revenue⁵.

The new agreement will enable UK retailers to accept in-store Alipay payments without replacing their existing point-of-sale system, allowing them to take advantage of the boom in Chinese tourism without disrupting their existing customer experience⁶. Retailers will also benefit from being at the fingertips of hundreds of millions of highly-engaged Alipay users, who will be able to search for outlets near their location to find out details such as opening hours, directions, and whether there are any discounts available.

Alipay serves over one billion users worldwide together with local e-wallet partners, and this new agreement offers its Chinese users travelling in the UK the familiar mobile payment and lifestyle experience they enjoy at home, as well as Alipay’s competitive foreign exchange rate.

Feedback from retailers has been incredibly positive; Barclaycard is already in discussions with around 70 clients interested in becoming early adopters.

Rob Cameron, CEO, Global Head of Payment Acceptance at Barclaycard, said:

“Thanks to the significant investments we’ve made in our platform, our clients have access to a growing range of payment types, each of which can help them increase market share by meeting the needs of new customers.

“Our new agreement with Alipay gives retailers a vital tool to help them seize the revenue opportunity posed by the growth of Chinese visitors to the UK. At the same time, Alipay users will benefit from a more convenient and familiar in-store payments process – enhancing their overall shopping experience.”

Roland Palmer, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Alipay, said:

“Alipay is excited to announce that it will be working with Barclaycard to provide visitors from China with the mobile payment experience that they are already familiar with. Through this strategic partnership, Alipay will now be able to offer many more UK merchants the opportunity to connect and engage with a growing number of Chinese visitors. This is another step forwards in our vision to offer Chinese tourists a seamless travel and payment experience when travelling overseas.”

Notes to editors

^1: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/british-population/national-and-regional-populations/population-of-england-and-wales/latest

^2: https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Research--Policy/Statistics/International-student-statistics-UK-higher-education

^3: https://www.visitbritain.org/uk-expecting-boost-visits-china-chinese-new-year-approaches

^4: The State of Mobile 2018 Report, App Annie

^5: https://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/cn/docs/2018-trends-for-mobile-payment.pdf

^6: In order to activate the new Alipay functionality, Barclaycard has created an API which retailers can share with their point-of-sale (POS) software supplier to facilitate integration into the POS system.

About Barclaycard

Barclaycard, part of Barclays Bank PLC, is a leading global payment business that helps consumers, retailers and businesses to make and take payments flexibly, and to access short-term credit and point-of-sale finance. In 2018 we processed nearly £268bn in transactions globally. Barclaycard is a pioneer of new forms of payment and is at the forefront of developing viable contactless and mobile payment schemes for today and cutting-edge forms of payment for the future. We also partner with a wide range of organisations across the globe to offer their customers or members payment options and credit.

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About Alipay

Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world’s leading payment and lifestyle platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently serves over 1 billion users with its local e-wallets partners. Over the years, Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Alipay’s in-store payment service covers over 50 countries and regions across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 35 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently supports 27 currencies.

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Contact information

Barclaycard:
Phillipa Russell, Media Relations, +44 (0) 207 116 5473, Phillipa.Russell@barclaycard.co.uk

Alipay:
Bell Wang, International Communications, +86 13810385201, yixing.wl@antfin.com