In 2018, more than 90% of Chinese tourists tend to use mobile payment methods to make payments when they are spending abroad.
Hai Chuangpai HiTrends Report (by Dolly)
Hai Chuang HiTrends author Dolly and friends with the RiverPay team
With the increasing influence of local Chinese and Chinese tourists, online payment methods based on Alipay and WeChat are changing the settlement methods of local Canadian businesses.
When mainland Chinese consumers only need to bring a mobile phone to complete the purchase payment, most Canadian businesses still accept cash, debit cards and credit cards. However, this situation is being changed by Chinese tourists.
Ryan, the founder of the aggregate payment company RiverPay, revealed that with the influence of WeChat, Alipay in Canada, and Chinese tourists with high spending power, more and more Canadian merchants began accepting online payments.
Currently, there are about 10 aggregate payment companies in Canada, and RiverPay is one of them. The company was founded in in 2017 and was founded in the beginning of the round of angel financing, and last year received A round of financing from domestic and North American institutions. As one of the first aggregation payment companies to receive Alipay and WeChat payment services, RiverPay is currently not only operating in Canada, but also the only aggregation payment company involved in the US and Europe (UK, France, Italy and other countries) markets. In January of this year, RiverPay also became the official authorized partner of UnionPay Cloud Flash in major overseas markets.
The data Ryan provided to us shows that in 2018, the mobile payment usage rate of Chinese outbound tourists was 69%, and more than 90% of Chinese tourists tend to use mobile payment methods to make payments when they are spending abroad.
Ryan revealed that the vast majority of Canadian merchants are more conservative than the aggressive and flexible US merchants. Although the strong spending power of Chinese and Chinese tourists attracts them, many merchants are not willing to change their internal information. The system, the cost of doing so is too high.
In order to change this situation, RiverPay provides 90% faster and faster in the market in a very short time without changing the internal information system of the business.The mainstream ERP system is docked and compatible with overseas credit card and third-party payment technology solutions.
After the program was introduced, Canadian merchants began to accept online payment methods for Chinese tourists. Ryan believes that the solution is the core competency of RiverPay, which is independently developed by the POS and payment system integration technology.
Ryan told HiTrends that compared to its peers, RiverPay’s strategic layout has always been the entry point and main direction of large merchants. In its merchant list, 90% are top retail department stores and well-known brand stores, including , Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Hudson’s Bay (a well-known chain of department stores in Canada), Holt Renfrew (Canada’s largest luxury chain), Harry Rosen (accounting for over 40% of high-end men’s wear in Canada), Harrods, Britain’s most famous department store And Selfridges, as well as luxury stores such as Tiffany & Co., Prada, De Beers, Max Mara.
A week ago, RiverPay also announced a partnership with First Data, one of the largest and largest payment and financial industry services companies in North America, starting in the Canadian market and then extending throughout North America. Through RiverPay, First Data’s intelligent POS system will gradually accept Alipay, WeChat payment and UnionPay cloud flash payment. First Data itself has more than 6 million merchants and can process 2,800 transactions per second.
Comparing with US and Canadian merchants, Ryan said that although the US market is large, the Chinese-distributed cities are very fragmented and more difficult to expand than Canada. Perhaps this is why other similar rivals in Canada have not chosen to enter the US market.
RiverPay Canada has a team of more than 20 people, responsible for business development, operations and customer service, while the R&D team in Silicon Valley, California is the core strength of corporate technology innovation. In addition, RiverPay is in London and China this year. A new office has been established.
