WeChat Pay to expand cross-border business in Europe

WeChat Pay announced that Europe would be their next key market of WeChat Pay Cross-border Business on the Europe-first WeChat Open Class in London. Continues its ONE FOR BILLION business initiative, WeChat Pay provides merchants with not only an advanced mobile payment method, but also ONE platform which enables long-term communications and customized customer services for BILLIONs of Chinese consumers.

As of April 2019, the number of merchants in Europe offering WeChat Pay as a payment method was 3.5 times higher than that of last year.

With outbound travel becoming easier and an increase in personal income levels, the Chinese outbound travel market continues to expand. According to latest data, in 2018, more than 149 million Chinese tourists travelled abroad, and Europe took up 11 percent of it. Capitalizing on the dividends of Chinese tourist traffic will be key in the future growth of tourism related industries. However, differences in language and consumption habits often affect the overall travel experience of Chinese tourists. For merchants, the lack of good communication channels may result in losing the potential Chinese customers who may eventually go to their competitors.

„WeChat has 1.112 billion monthly active users worldwide, of which 800 million are users of WeChat Pay. WeChat Pay has officially entered more than 49 overseas countries and regions, making it an excellent way for global merchants to quickly and effectively connect with Chinese tourists.” according to the press release.

Dave Fan, Senior Director of WeChat Pay, says: „WeChat Pay is not targeting on solving payment issue, but more on communication. Smart industry solutions with WeChat Pay at their core have been brought to millions of offline stores across over 30 industries in China, and are common throughout users’ daily lives. Together with our global partners, we hope to extend the convenient experience of WeChat Pay overseas, so that global businesses can share the dividends of China’s growing outbound travel market.”

WeChat Pay team integrates a variety of functions to help European merchants smoothly accelerate their digitalization process and better connect with Chinese customers: WeChat Pay provides convenient payment service and eliminate the problem transferring currencies; WeChat Official Account provides a brand page for merchants to integrate their branding and promotional information; WeChat Mini Program allows merchants to easily customize their service for Chinese customers like a built-in full function app; WeChat Moments Advertising allows merchants to drive targeted traffic based on live location and customers demographic.

Europe has been well-known as the hometown of fashion. Those famous fashion brands like Cartier, Dior, Armani Beauty, etc. have launched their WeChat Mini Program to stay ahead of their competition in digital era. With Mini Program, they realize multiple functions including membership management, e-boutique social commerce, self-service shopping, promotion mini site, product customize service, AI makeup trial and more. Brands could not only provide their customers with customized service but also integrate fragmented traffic from on and offline.

Bradley Mo, Senior Director of Industry Application, WeChat Open Platform, shared: „As Chinese customers desire more personalized products and services, numerous brands are using Mini Programs to satisfy those needs through social commerce. Ultimately, the three underlying functions Mini Programs realize for social commerce are increase sales, engage users and optimize data.”

On the same day, London Business School introduced its latest case study „Innovation and Agility at Tencent’s WeChat” in its Strategy and Innovation Class.