Verifone and Alipay Team Up At Lacoste Stores

Alipay has been pushing to get into the hands of the growing Chinese tourist class for some time now, and we’ve seen the outcomes of that all over. Recently, Alipay and Verifone brought out the latest effort on this front, connecting to Lacoste to bring Alipay to at least some of those stores in the US.

The combination of Lacoste, Alipay and Verifone will allow at least some Lacoste stores—no word as yet on just which ones will be so blessed—to put out Alipay-based quick response (QR) codes, which allow for easy scan-and-pay options right at the point of sale. Those Lacoste stores which even can get in on the action, at last report, will have a Verifone e355 mobile point of sale solution serving as payment infrastructure.

This is just the latest move in the Alipay / Verifone partnership; the two firms have been working together since 2016, reports note, to help give European and North American retailers the chance to accept the biggest mobile payments system in China as readily as they could accept most any other. Better yet, those businesses who accepted Alipay could get access to listings in the Alipay marketing tool, which would offer extra help in brand visibility.

Verifone’s senior vice president of global business and corporate development, Richard Char, noted “Verifone is committed to helping retailers accommodate international shoppers with secure and familiar checkout experiences. Lacoste is a premium brand popular with Chinese shoppers and we aim to further bolster Lacoste’s global appeal, reputation, and growth by enabling acceptance of alternative payments like Alipay.”

Basically, this is likely to prove worthwhile, if not particularly large in impact. Giving customers one more option—particularly an option that’s familiar to them and probably welcome besides—encourages customers who might otherwise be on the fence about making a purchase to actually pull the trigger on said purchases. Even if only a few such fences are jumped, that’s still good news for the business

While the numbers of Chinese tourists who want to buy Lacoste during a trip to North America may not be all that great, just file it under “every little bit helps.” Then the whole thing makes much more sense and gives every side of the equation a little better outlook going forward.