35,000 North American merchants now accept Alipay

Alipay, a digital payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group and commerce-enabling technology provider First Data, recently announced an expanded partnership that adds 35,000 merchants to the growing roster of businesses accepting Alipay in store.

The expansion allows US merchants the ability to offer Alipay’s 600 million registered Chinese users the same convenient payment experience they enjoy at home while traveling in the United States.

Souheil Badran, president, Alipay Americas, said First Data continues to be a premier partner for Alipay: “In a few short months, First Data has significantly expanded the number of merchant locations accepting Alipay through seamless integration. Now, Chinese travellers are enjoying the familiarity of their Alipay mobile wallet at many of their favourite locations across the United States. We look forward to continuing to partner with First Data as we aim to enable Alipay at millions of additional merchant locations in 2018.”

The expanded partnership follows a May 2017 announcement unveiling First Data’s plans to integrate Alipay at the point-of-sale (POS) across four million US merchant locations. The on-going rollout includes merchants using First Data’s Clover suite of solutions. As a POS platform, Clover serves the needs of merchants ranging from food trucks and small retailers to regional coffee houses and even the largest sports stadiums.

“We are thrilled with the significant interest we’ve seen from merchants who want to offer Alipay at the point-of-sale,” said Nandan Sheth, general manager, Global Debit Solutions, First Data. “As our partnership continues to mature, we are excited to roll out Alipay on an even larger scale. Businesses that offer Alipay are able to benefit from the growing number of Chinese travellers coming to the US by offering a frictionless payment experience that transcends country, currency and language barriers.”

Alipay said it aims to simplify every aspect of Chinese tourists’ travel in North America, enabling them to use Alipay for everything from ride-hailing and purchasing luxury goods, to making reservations at hotels and restaurants.

Through Alipay’s geolocation-based “Discover” function and push notifications within the Alipay app, Chinese travellers can locate merchants nearby, receive promotional information and make purchasing decisions. Through the same function, Alipay also enables local merchants to better target and connect with Chinese consumers, the company said.