MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Quest Payment Systems Pty Ltd, an innovative Australian payments provider has collaborated with Alipay, the largest mobile and online payment company in the world, to launch Alipay in Australian stores.
Alipay makes it easy for Chinese nationals, tourists and students to pay for purchases in-store using their mobile phones, and in their own currency. Quest has designed the software to fully integrate with existing Point of Sale (POS) systems, providing a seamless experience for retailers and customers.
Recent growth for mobile payments in China has been substantial, with Business Insider projecting that China will process $6.3 trillion in total mobile payments by 2020. Tourism Australia has reported that Chinese visitors spent a record $8.9 Billion over the past year to March 2016. On average, Chinese tourists spend approximately $8,000 during each visit to Australia, providing significant opportunity for Australian Retailers.
Quest has already enabled Alipay at select stores within The Chemist Warehouse and My Chemist pharmacy groups, with full rollout planned for early 2017. The Chemist Warehouse and My Chemist groups have been impressed by Quest’s innovation agility, ease of implementation and the benefits that Alipay can offer Chinese customers. Mark Finocchiario, Managing Partner & Director at My Chemist:
‘It is important to find a payments partner that can bring new innovation into our stores, whilst understanding the needs of a large retail chain. Quest added the Alipay solution without the need to change our POS software or for additional hardware. We’ve been able to maintain our existing payment and reconciliation processes, minimising change for our operators and enabling us to offer this convenient feature to our Chinese shoppers.’
Quest’s Innovation Manager Luke Fuller is excited that Quest is the first Australian payments provider to implement a large scale in-store rollout of Alipay to Australian retailers:
‘We are delighted to provide the first large scale rollout of Alipay into an Australian network. Alipay customers can now simply scan a code displayed on the screen of our QT720 payment terminal in order to pay from their mobile phone. It’s simple, intuitive and ensures that the customer can see exactly what their purchase will cost in both AUD and their local currency.’
Quest developed the innovative software that, in a few easy steps, enables the terminal to convert the currency and process Alipay transactions. Chemist Warehouse will now be able to benefit from their participation in Alipay’s 12.12 event, a global promotion offering in-store incentives to Alipay users for shopping in specific stores.
Chemist Warehouse is currently the largest overseas e-commerce vendor connected to Alipay and has experienced a significant increase in sales to new Chinese customers in the past 11.11 online global shopping festival. Alipay are pleased to be working with Chemist Warehouse again. Kiki Wu, Alipay Country Manager of Australia and New Zealand:
‘We had great experiences working together with Quest and Chemist Warehouse, and are looking forward to the up-coming 12.12 in-store shopping festival. ’
ABOUT QUEST PAYMENT SYSTEMS PTY LTD
With headquarters in Melbourne, Quest is an Australian owned technology company providing a diverse and innovative range of end-to-end payment solutions to businesses and financial institutions, both locally and abroad. As the country’s leading full-service payment solution supplier, delivering Australia’s only locally designed and manufactured range of payment terminal hardware, Quest delivers both mass market and custom solutions drawing on over twenty years of development expertise. Quest’s portfolio of solutions include fixed line and mobile payment terminal hardware, software, gift card and online payment solutions, EMV smartcard, contactless, communications and transaction routing solutions as well as bespoke hardware and software design, professional consulting and manufacturing services.
ABOUT ALIPAY
Launched in 2004, Alipay currently has over 450 million active users. Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, make appointments with doctors, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Over 2,000,000 brick-and-mortar merchants now accept Alipay across China. As of October 2016, Alipay is supported in 70 overseas markets, with in-store payments covering more than 100,000 retail stores, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 24 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 40 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay supports the settlement of 18 currencies.
