Alipay said this week it’s rolling out cashless payments for Chinese customers at select Guess stores in the U.S. and shops along San Francisco’s Pier 39.
On Tuesday, the Ant Financial unit said a partnership with Guess means Chinese travelers visiting the U.S. will be able to pay through their Alipay app at more than 50 stores in popular destinations, including New York, Las Vegas and cities in California. The partnership covers select U.S. stores across all Guess concepts, including its flagship Guess line, Guess Accessories, Guess Factory, Marciano and GbG.
The deal enables local stores to better target and connect with Chinese consumers, Alipay said. Guess will be able to market to Chinese tourists before, during and after their visits to the U.S., boosting its brand among Chinese customers.
“As a global brand with over 1,000 stores in approximately 100 countries, it is important that we are constantly innovating the customer shopping experience on an international level,” said Edward Park, Guess senior vice president for North America. “We are excited to bring Alipay’s technology to Guess stores because we recognize the importance that native apps play in the customer journey.”
And on Wednesday, Alipay said that over 40 merchants and vendors on Pier 39, including Bubba Gump Shrimp, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and the Aquarium of the Bay will now accept payments via Alipay’s mobile wallet. Pier 39 will offer Alipay through CITCON, a leading cross-border mobile payments and marketing company that helps connect merchants with Chinese mobile-wallet users.
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“We are thrilled to partner with Pier 39. By enabling them to use Alipay at the register, they are diminishing payment and language barriers, providing these Chinese travelers with the best shopping and touring experience possible,” said Souheil Badran, president of Alipay Americas.
For both deals, the Alipay app’s geolocation-based “Discover” function and push notifications within the app mean Chinese travelers can locate nearby stores, receive promotional information and make purchasing decisions.
Alipay is the world’s leading mobile and online payments platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay works with over 200 domestic financial-institution partners. Over 40 million brick-and-mortar merchants now accept Alipay across China. Alipay also works with more than 250 overseas financial institutions and supports 27 currencies. Its in-store payment service enables cross-border payments for Chinese traveling overseas and overseas customers who buy from Chinese e-commerce sites.
