Alipay, one of the world’s leading digital payment platforms, has partnered with Poynt, the maker of the world’s first smart terminal, to enable Alipay’s more than 520 million registered users in China and beyond to pay with Alipay across all Poynt devices in North America.
Through the agreement, Alipay users visiting North America will enjoy a seamless, familiar checkout experience using the payment method that is most comfortable for them. Alipay is China's leading online payment provider and the primary means of online and mobile payments for Chinese consumers.
“Given all the capabilities built into Poynt’s hardware and software, and its agnostic approach to acquirers, we will be able to deliver a truly integrated payment solution for retailers, as well as the simple payment experience our users are accustomed to,” said Mr. Souheil Badran, President, Alipay North America. “We partnered with Poynt because we both share a commitment to enabling a modern commerce experience for merchants and customers alike.”
Poynt was started in 2013 by Google Wallet founder and former PayPal executive Osama Bedier to revolutionize the payment experience for merchants and their customers. The Poynt Smart Terminal features innovations like dual touchscreens, wireless connectivity via 3G, WiFi or ethernet, seamless connection to a merchant’s existing payment processor, and thanks to multiple payment options, lets consumers pay the way they like. Their newest terminal, the Poynt 5, features all of the Poynt Smart Terminal’s most popular features on an innovative, single screen handheld mobile POS available to enterprise merchants.
“We are thrilled to partner with Alipay. Acquirers and merchants choose Poynt terminals to deliver on consumers increasing tech-rich expectations; this partnership furthers our mission to empower merchants with technology superpowers and consumers with the best shopping experience,” said Mr. Osama Bedier, CEO of Poynt.
Poynt enables Alipay QR Code payments as part of its existing payment capabilities that include Mag Stripe, EMV, NFC and Gift Cards. As the first smart terminal to offer Alipay acceptance in the world across acquirers, merchants utilizing Poynt terminals will be able to accept Alipay without the need for any additional integration or hardware.
Separately, North American Bancard Holdings, LLC. (NAB), a multi-faceted and award-winning payment solutions provider, and Alipay announced today that Alipay is now available on NAB’s wholly owned Electronic Payment Exchange (EPX) processing platform through a variety of NAB owned products, including gateways, terminals and mobile payment solutions.
“Alipay has realized tremendous adoption among Chinese nationals and has quickly become their preferred omni-channel payment method,” said Marc Gardner, president and CEO at NAB. “Our goal has always been to ensure that our merchants have every payment tool at their fingertips to attract customers both online and offline. Because of that, we are very pleased that Alipay decided to align with NAB to help enhance opportunities for merchants of all sizes, as millions of overseas customers continue to visit the U.S. every year.”
Alipay is operated by Ant Financial Services Group, a related company of Alibaba, and has been expanding rapidly inside and beyond China. Over 10 million brick-and-mortar merchants now accept Alipay across China. Alipay’s in-store payment service is covering more than 30 countries and supports 27 currencies.
Now, U.S. merchants of all sizes can benefit by offering Alipay as a payment type in their stores. The number of Chinese consumers visiting North America is predicted to grow to four million this year. In addition, the Chinese middle class is presently the single fastest-growing online consumer market in the world, estimated to grow to 600 million by 2020, and North American merchants will be well-positioned with this customer base if they are able to accept the preferred payment type of this consumer demographic whether in store, or online.
“Our priority is to ensure a safe, secure and reliable payment process for the millions of Chinese consumers who travel to North America or shop online from North America merchants,” said Souheil Badran, President of Alipay North America. “Through our strong partnership with NAB, over 120,000 of NAB’s PayAnywhere merchants are now enabled with Alipay which includes best-in-class support.”
Alipay is enabled on the EPX processing platform and will be accessible to independent software vendors (ISVs) wanting to integrate with the technology in December 2017. PayAnywhere users are able to use a camera, or barcode scanner, to accept Alipay through both the mobile app and PayAnywhere Storefront. By the end of 2017, Alipay acceptance will be rolled out to all of NAB’s semi-integrated MICROS terminals, along with their entire Ingenico terminal merchant base.