The Lacoste Group’s U.S. retail stores will now accept mobile payments from consumers who use Chinese mobile payment platform Alipay.
Alipay is the mobile payments arm of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and is owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Financial. The payment processor is accepted at 180,000 stores in the U.S. and 10 million stores in China.
More than 520 million consumers have registered for Alipay, Souheil Badran, president of Alipay Americas, told Internet Retailer at the National Retail Federation Conference in New York City in January.
Quick checkout buttons like Alipay or Apple Pay expedite the purchase process both online and in stores. In stores, the technology allows a shopper to tap her smartphone to the point-of-sale system. The POS system uses near field communication technology to use the shopper’s saved payment credential in the payment processor’s app.
On e-commerce websites, mobile websites and in apps, the payment button uses the consumer’s default credit card and shipping information to check out, which reduces the number of fields a shopper has to complete. Quick payment buttons especially speed up checkout on mobile devices. 82% of transactions on the Alipay platform were made via mobile devices in 2017, according to Alipay.
Alipay wants to cater to Chinese tourists in various countries, including the 4 million Chinese tourists who visit North America every year, Badran said.
“Our objective is not the American consumer,” Badran said. “It’s the Chinese [consumers] all over the world. How can we give them the same convenience like we do online?”
France-based Lacoste decided to accept Alipay payments to appeal to these Chinese consumers, says Joëlle Grünberg, president and CEO of Lacoste North and Central America. “Lacoste is a very strong brand in their country,” Grünberg said, declining to reveal specifics.
Lacoste stores already accept mobile payments Apple Pay, Google Pay (formerly Android Pay) and Samsung Pay.
Lacoste did not specify if any of its in-store shoppers use these quick checkout methods, however, the retailer says shoppers use quick payment buttons on its website. On its e-commerce site, the retailer has PayPal and Amazon Pay, and it will add more options this year, Grünberg said, declining to give details.
“We have seen high usage rates of the quick payment buttons on our website, and they help us provide a premium and convenient online shopping experience,” Grünberg said. “Anything that makes our customer’s life easier is a great add-on.”
Other U.S. retailers that accept Alipay include luxury retailer Rebecca Minkoff, which accepts the payment on its website and its stores, as well as on vitamin and supplements retailer GNC Holdings Inc.’s website. GNC is No. 187 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 500.
Product categories that are popular with Chinese consumers include luxury goods, baby food, and health and safety products, Badran said. Counterfeiting is a problem in China and consumers like to purchase authenticated, well-known brands.
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