Adding WeChat Pay and Alipay options to retail point of sale allows brands to now tap into an even larger revenue stream from Chinese consumers who are the largest spender, and fastest growing traveler segment to the North America.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Citcon the integrated payment and marketing platform, and China Luxury Advisors (CLA) a strategic consultancy dedicated to connecting the world’s leading brands, institutions and destinations to the global Chinese consumer, announced a strategic partnership to enable brands in North America to accept WeChat Pay and Alipay.
WeChat Pay and Alipay are the most popular and convenient payment options for Chinese consumers to purchase goods and services. Adding these payment options to retail point of sale allows brands to now tap into an even larger revenue stream from Chinese consumers who are the largest spender, and fastest growing traveler segment to the North America. The platform enables brands to optimize revenue growth without the costs and hassles of establishing a business entity in China.
WeChat Pay is a fully integrated payment solution within WeChat, the world’s most popular mobile social communications service with 936 million active users and Alipay is a super lifestyle app run by Ant Financial Services Group with more than 450 million active users. Together these platforms jointly account for 90% of China’s mobile payment market share. Both super apps allow users to book a trip, hail a taxi, order food, purchase movie tickets, pay for water and electricity bills, manage investments, perform transactions on e-commerce websites and more to create a cashless society.
“Chinese arrivals into the United States are expected to grow by 121 percent by 2020 to reach more than 5 million travelers, making it the third largest international market and the largest overseas market for the United States. Chinese travelers are already the highest spending international tourist in the Untied States – having spent more than $27 billion in the United States in 2015, and this number is expected to continue to grow rapidly. This tremendous growth brings new possibilities for American retailers and destinations to continue to grow their share of visitation and spending from Chinese tourists. Ensuring that your destination is China-Ready and China-Smart will accelerate this development and expand your opportunity. Payment assurances and acceptance of locally trusted and preferred Chinese providers are one of the top ways for retailers and destinations alike to capture this growing market,” said Renee Hartmann, Co-Founder of CLA. “The Citcon platform is seamless to the merchant and provides endless opportunities for revenue growth. We are excited to now be able to offer this service to our clients.”
As the first payment partner of WeChat Pay and Alipay, in addition to major credit cards such as UnionPay, MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express, Citcon is a one-stop shop for merchants to connect with Chinese consumers and accept payments anywhere. Citcon’s stand-alone mobile point-of-sale (mPOS), easy-to-integrate API and software products empower merchants to optimize growth both online and offline, with an easy and affordable rate compared to credit card processing. In addition to the convenient payment solutions, merchants will also be able to gain in-depth consumer behavior insights, manage business performance, run marketing campaigns, guides users to merchants stores while saving their shopping preferences for future visits and manage lifetime customer loyalty programs.
“Our partnership with CLA makes targeting and growing businesses with Chinese consumers easier than ever for merchants in North America.” said Chuck Huang, Founder and CEO of Citcon, “China is changing fast. Mobile payment is the new frontier of commerce and China is leading this trend. By providing an integrated and easy-to-use payment solution, Citcon is creating a future that takes payment and marketing to the next level, empowering global merchants to drive business growth with millions of Chinese consumers.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
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