Shopify Links Up With Alipay To Boost Merchants’ Cross-Border Sales

Shopify has expanded its payment options for merchants with a new partnership with Alipay, China’s payments app.

The deal will unlock “the power of cross-border commerce for Shopify’s merchants,” Shopify said in a press release that called Alipay “Asia's leading digital wallet platform.” The new payment option will ”allow Shopify merchants to seamlessly accept payments through Alipay from more than one billion annual active users in China alone — and, in the future, hundreds of millions more across Asia,” according to the release.

Previously, “Shopify merchants have been able to offer Alipay as a payment method through third-party providers. Now, through the Alipay payment gateway, Shopify merchants will reduce friction for consumers looking to make purchases with their preferred payment method,” Shopify said in the release.

Shopify said the new payments method will allow its merchants to more easily assist customers looking to buy during shopping events and holiday seasons. In China, this would include the upcoming Dec. 12 shopping event (known as 12.12) and the Lunar New Year holiday, coming in February.

“At Shopify, we believe in a world of borderless commerce and are focused on helping our merchants build thriving businesses — not just within their own markets, but on a truly international scale,” said Kaz Nejatian, vice president, merchant services at Shopify. “Reaching consumers across Asia is an enormous growth opportunity for our merchants, and Alipay has brought inclusive financial services to more than one billion people in China.”

Shopify said the new Alipay payments method “is available now to Shopify merchants in the U.S., with more markets to come in the future — including Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.”

Nejatian added, “Through today’s partnership, we’ll help our merchants provide the best possible shopping experiences for this new audience of cross-border consumers.”

While Alipay just keeps chugging along, its parent company’s plans for going public have run aground. Ant Group’s planned initial public offering (IPO) of stock collapsed when the company, led by billionaire Jack Ma, got hit with new regulations the Chinese government is formulating.