Alipay Hooks Up With Blackhawk Network To Expand Operations

Alipay’s expansionism continues unabated, thanks to new reports coming out all over. Its recent setback trying to pick up MoneyGram hasn’t slowed it down any, and the latest word comes out of a new deal between itself and Blackhawk Network, one that’s set to bring the popular Chinese mobile payment system to more retailers in fairly rapid fashion.

The recent word says that Blackhawk will start bringing Alipay service to its own various users starting this month, which means it won’t be long at all before a new slug of merchants can start accepting Alipay. This is especially useful for any Blackhawk retailers that find themselves frequently hosting visiting Chinese tourists, who are themselves a very impressive shopping class and worth a retailer’s time and energy to court.

Blackhawk’s technology makes it fairly well-suited to Alipay, since it focuses on quick response (QR) codes located in stores. Access of the proprietary Blackhawk platform allows the immediate issuance of an e-gift that allows for purchases to be quickly covered.

Blackhawk’s president and CEO, Talbott Roche, commented “Until now, Chinese tourists lacked convenient access to information on what payment methods were accepted at US retailers they wished to visit. Alipay is ubiquitous in China, and represents an effective way for retailers to engage with Chinese travelers. We are excited to offer our retail partners a way to better connect with Chinese consumers by alleviating the major pain points of shopping, researching and paying while visiting and ultimately, providing Alipay users with an excellent shopping experience while they travel here in the US.”

Trying to cash in on the growing Chinese tourist class isn’t exactly new, and Alipay has done an excellent job in recent months presenting just such a pitch to American retailers. By bringing in Alipay, it’s that much easier for a visiting Chinese tourist to make a purchase with an American retailer. That’s not a proposition that has a loser, so Chinese shoppers get easier payments, American retailers better sales, and Alipay gets one more payment to process, just what it needs to build up its resources against an increasingly grasping Chinese government.

More sales, easier shopping, and more payments to process is the kind of math that ends well for everyone, perhaps Alipay most of all.