7-Eleven Malaysia first retailer in country to accept Alipay, from tomorrow
KUALA LUMPUR: 7-Eleven Malaysia is the first retailer in the country to accept Alipay mobile wallet application as a payment option in its outlets nationwide, a move its majority shareholder Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun expects will increase the spending of mainland Chinese tourists at its outlets.
All 2,100 7-Eleven stores, will be accepting Alipay application as a cashless payment means from Wednesday.
“I greatly believe in the value of Alipay’s partnership, which will bring a trusted and convenient means of payment to the many Chinese tourist who visit Malaysia every year, while providing local merchants with the opportunity to tap into this growing customer segment market,” said Tan, majority shareholder of MOL Global Inc and 7-Eleven Malaysia, at the launch ceremony of Alipay Mobile Wallet Acceptance yesterday.
The service is being rolled out by 7-Eleven Malaysia Sdn Bhd in partnership with MOL Accessportal Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of MOL Global Inc, and Alipay. MOL will serve as the third party merchant acquirer to facilitate Alipay payments in Malaysia.
Tan said mainland Chinese tourist visiting Thailand spend up to five times more per transaction via their Alipay mobile wallets at 7-Eleven outlets there, compared with the average transactions in stores here.
According to Douglas Feagin, CEO of Alipay and senior vice-president of international business at Ant Financial, which is the parent company of Alipay, the number of Chinese tourist visiting the country is expected to increase to 3 million-3.5 million this year from 2.1 million last year.
“We are just starting this month, the number of tourist is going to increase, the number of merchants will increase, therefore the economic activity will continue to increase greatly,” he said.
7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd CEO Gary Brown said Alipay is a “way of life in China,” where “everyone uses the service to shop and do their online transactions”.
“We would also be very hopeful of an high uptake from the Chinese tourist that comes to Malaysia as most of them are sure to have access to Alipay,” he told reporters.
Alipay, which currently has 450 million active users predominantly in China, will enable merchants to make transactions by scanning the barcode generated by the Alipay application on the customers phone. Alipay is one of China’s leading online payment solution providers.
In the months to come, the Alipay service will go live with other Berjaya Group merchants such as Starbucks, Kenny Rogers, Cosway and the group’s existing partner merchants.
Alipay in-store payment service is accepted at over 110,000 retail stores and supported in over 70 overseas market. The digital wallet application can be used for taxi hailing, to book a hotel, make doctor’s appointments, buy movie tickets , pay utility bills or purchase wealth management products.