As the use of no-touch payment technologies such as QR codes surged during the COVID-19 pandemic (see our earlier article here), retailers of all sizes began using mobile payment options that have been available for years.
Alternative payment services such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay – each of which are used by more than a billion customers around the world – are becoming available at more and more retail outlets across Australia, including major retailers such as Woolworths, Target, Myer, David Jones, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Dan Murphy’s and Uniqlo.
What are they and how do they work?
WeChat, known in China as 微信 or Weixin, is one of the largest social media platforms in the world with 1.2 billion monthly active users. It’s has been referred to as a Swiss army knife application: a mega app combining the functionality of Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, WhatsApp, Uber and Paypal. It was offering ecommerce capability years before Western social media platforms even attempted it.
WeChat Pay, the payment function within WeChat, allows people to seamlessly make purchases while paying in their local currency. WeChat Pay handles more than one billion transactions globally daily, demonstrating the regular spending habits of its users.
According to the Guardian, “It has become so ubiquitous in China that it’s hard to function without a WeChat account. It’s needed to pay for goods and to order taxis. Even street food vendors now display the QR codes that drive the system. WeChat is also a major publishing, advertising and communications tool for businesses, both inside and outside China.”
There are estimated to be more than three million users of WeChat in Australia. You need to be a Chinese citizen to apply for an official account, but foreign companies and Australian politicians (including former PM Scott Morrison) have obtained accounts through agencies based in China, which register the account on behalf of the organisation.
WeChat Pay launched in Australia at the start of 2018. Because mobile payments are now an integral part of Chinese consumer culture and nearly 70% of travellers use them to pay for their expenses abroad, Australian businesses that provide familiar alternative payments to international customers (both travellers and the diaspora living here) can expect to see a dramatic increase in sales from markets where WeChat is popular.
Unlike PayPal, which makes money through a percentage of your transaction, WeChat’s developer Tencent makes money selling other products.
Alipay is even bigger than WeChat Pay, with more than 1.3 billion users worldwide and more than 50% of the Chinese third-party payment market (ahead of WeChat Pay, which has a less than 40% share). It is accepted by more than 80 million merchants globally.
Alipay overtook PayPal as the world’s biggest mobile payment provider back in 2013. Like WeChat Pay, Alipay relies on QR code technology and has been available in Australia since 2018.
UnionPay, meanwhile, is a Chinese-based credit card service, so it works without QR codes. UnionPay is bigger than Visa and Mastercard in total value of payments made by customers and is also the largest card payment processing organization (debit and credit cards combined) in the world, although more than 95% of transactions take place in China.
UnionPay has been available in Australia since 2006 and it’s estimated that 80% of Australian merchants accept UnionPay cards, which add a small transaction fee similar to other credit cards.
Why consider alternative payment methods?
According to research from checkout.com, “not offering a customer’s preferred payment option was the biggest conversion killer”, with more than half of consumers saying that if they couldn’t use their payment method of choice, it would permanently put them off shopping with a retailer or website.
In Australia, customers are looking for ease and convenience. The Choosi Alternative Payments report revealed that even before the pandemic, 67% of Australians were using alternative payment methods to facilitate 62% of everyday purchases.
epay makes alternative payments easy
If you’re an epay customer, you can have WeChat Pay, Alipay and UnionPay switched on today via your terminal or pos integration.
As the official Alipay and Wechat Pay partner to many key retailers in Australia, epay is there to take hassle out of accepting alternative payments and to help boost your sales.
epay also offers:
- City card: A local guide that helps Chinese consumers know where to go and where to shop
- City Page: Your store and offer on the city page
- Store set up and maintenance: We manage the store set up on the Alipay app. In-house resources provide content translation so your customer can get to know you and your featured products, even before their trip.
- Campaign consultation and management: Our dedicated multi-lingual marketing team works with you to help you get the most out of the alternative payment services you offer.
Contact epay for more information.