Alipay, the mobile payment platform run by Ant Financial Services Group, announced on Wednesday (Oct. 12) it has partnered with Zapper, the consumer insights and marketing platform, which is enabled by mobile payments.
In a press release, the companies said the partnership will allow over 250,000 Chinese tourists visiting the U.K. to pay using the Alipay app in over 1,000 locations nationwide.
Zapper is Alipay’s first European mobile partner, allowing over 450 million active Alipay users to pay via the Alipay app across its full estate of affiliated Zapper businesses in the U.K., Europe and North America. Launching soon, the partnership demonstrates a strong synergy between both brands in terms of innovative, mobile-based QR code technology. With over 85 percent of mobile payments in China currently made by scanning a QR code, the customer journey will be identical for Alipay users when purchasing goods and services using Zapper.
“With Zapper as a partner, Alipay can further enhance our user experience as they can conveniently shop outside of China and pay with Alipay,” Rita Liu, head of Alipay EMEA, said in the press release. “Meanwhile, merchants, in addition to the Alipay payment solution, can better connect and understand hundreds of thousands Chinese tourists traveling in the U.K.”
Scanning a QR code to make simple and secure payments has been the “norm” with Alipay users in China for the last 12 years. Zapper currently provides a similar experience for its nearly 1 million users across 10 different countries and 12,000 affiliated businesses. “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us, pioneering the way by combining our synonymous QR code payment technology. A huge development enabling Chinese tourists to seamlessly continue using the highly popular Alipay app when traveling to the U.K. and our partnered Zapper venues to appeal more favorably to traveling Alipay users and stand out from the competition,” added Gerry Hooper, CEO of Zapper U.K. and Ireland, in the press release.
