Concardis Expands Global Reach By Launching Alipay In Austria, Switzerland

Concardis is expanding its international portfolio by bringing Chinese mobile payment solution Alipay to Austria and Switzerland.

According to Finextra, CGössl is the first merchant in Austria to enable Chinese guests to pay via smartphone and the Alipay app, with the rollout in the Swiss market planned for October. In addition, Concardis has already implemented Alipay at several hundred acceptance outlets throughout Germany.

“Retail is becoming increasingly internationalized. This in turn increases the demands on payment systems — not only in eCommerce, but also at the point of sale on site,” said Marcus W. Mosen, CEO of Concardis. “Tourists from around the world come to Europe and, when shopping, expect the standard options they are used to from their home countries. But East Asia is leading the way in terms of mobile payment. This is the reason for our partnership with Alipay — which helps us enable merchants in all of German-speaking Europe to allow their customers who are travelling from Asia to pay using the preferred payment method in China.”

Alipay has more than 450 million active users and holds more than 50 percent of the Chinese online payment market, reaching a total of 80 percent with regard to mobile payment. According to the German Federal Statistical Office, 2.5 million Chinese tourists stayed in hotels in Germany in 2015, and those numbers are expected to grow. And 715,000 Chinese tourists visited Austria in 2015, while more than 1.5 million Chinese guests stayed overnight in Switzerland that same year.