Canadian retailers who use the Stripe platform to conduct their business online now have a greatly expanded customer base.
The San Francisco-based business software developer recently announced partnerships with Chinese digital payment providers Alipay, the payment service division of tech giant Alibaba Group Holdings, and WeChat Pay, essentially connecting Stripe customers to “hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers,” the company’s Southeast Asia and Hong Kong head, Piruze Sabuncu, wrote in a July 10 blog post.
“In 2016, Alipay and WeChat Pay dominated the mobile wallet ecosystem in China, with 92 per cent market share between them,” Sabuncu wrote.
The partnerships allow companies that use Stripe to facilitate online sales to integrate Alipay and WeChat Pay into their websites.
“If you are an internet business this unlocks a new vast customer base,” Stripe president and co-founder John Collison told Reuters, noting that Chinese consumers will also benefit from the increased number of online merchants they can order from.
The numbers are indeed vast: Alipay has more than 520 million users, while WeChat Pay, a division of the company behind one of China’s most popular social networking platforms, boasts more than 600 million.
According to Sabuncu, both Alipay and WeChat Pay can be easily implemented with Sources, Stripe’s API (advanced programming interface) for payment integration. The company has also written a guide to help businesses navigate the various payment methods now available to them.
For more information, check out Stripe’s website.