Alipay Now Ubiquitous At Mall Of America

To help Mall of America merchants engage with Chinese consumers, CITCON has teamed up with the shopping complex to offer stores a cross-border mobile payments system. The feature will be offered in merchandise shops, Nickelodeon Universe and guest services, CITCON said in an announcement.

“Chinese consumers have become accustomed to the idea of doing everything on mobile,” CITCON Founder and CEO Chuck Huang said in the announcement. “Accepting the familiar and preferred mobile payment options has become a necessity for retailers to deliver an exceptional customer experience that matches with the changing behavior of today’s Chinese consumers.”

With the system, merchants can reach Chinese customers who like to use Alipay and WeChat Pay when shopping in China or when they are travelling internationally. And, with a “Discover” function from Alipay, travelers can locate merchants in the mall, make purchasing decisions and receive promotions. In all, the United States is a popular destination for travels from China, and in 2020, Chinese travelers are projected to spend $80 billion in the U.S.

The news comes as GUESS?, Inc. has partnered with Alipay to bring the payment option into select brick-and-mortar stores across GUESS’ brands. With the tie-up, customers will be able to use the app in more than 50 locations, such as New York, Las Vegas and California, the retailer said in its announcement. The deal also provides marketing for GUESS stores: Chinese travelers can locate nearby GUESS locations with the app’s geolocation-based “Discover” function. In addition, consumers can make purchasing decisions and receive promotional information through the app.

And Western Union, the global payments services company, announced news on Monday (April 30) that it has added WeChat Pay to its WU GlobalPay for Students products via an alliance with Geoswift, a payment company specializing in payment solutions in and out of China. In a press release, Western Union said accepting WeChat will enable academic institutions to offer Chinese students studying abroad more choices in payment options, including WeChat Pay, Alipay, UnionPay and Tenpay.