Partnership also makes Alipay available to more than one billion
users on Holland & Barrett’s website
LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Integrated payments and marketing platform RiverPay Inc. today announced
that it has launched a partnership with iconic global health and
wellness retailer Holland & Barrett to exclusively add world’s leading
mobile payments tool Alipay to the brand’s more than 1,600 retail stores
around the globe, including 800 in the UK and Ireland. As part of the
agreement, RiverPay has also integrated Alipay into Holland & Barrett’s
official online shop to enable Alipay users to buy the wide range of
health products anywhere and anytime.
Higher disposable incomes and increasing health awareness among Chinese
consumers in the growing middle class have been key drivers in the
demand for high-quality vitamins and dietary supplements (VDS). By 2020,
the VDS market in China is expected to reach CNY 149 billion (£16.9
billion)1, where Holland & Barrett is highly popular among
health-conscious Chinese consumers.
Ryan Zheng, Co-founder and CEO of RiverPay said: “Health and wellness
has been a growing retail sector with huge potential among Chinese
consumers. We are thrilled to partner with Holland & Barrett globally
and bring strong Chinese purchasing power through their doors, which
also marks a significant step toward strengthening RiverPay’s foothold
in the health and wellness space.
It’s a shared mission for Alipay and RiverPay to help hundreds of
millions of Chinese travellers feel more at home when shopping overseas.
RiverPay is proud to assist in the process of offering them the payment
method with which they are most comfortable.”
The new partnership, which builds on a successful pilot over the past
two years, will enable Holland & Barrett to tap into Alipay’s over one
billion users in China and beyond, and especially capitalise on the
growing volume and spending power of Chinese tourists abroad. In the UK
alone, Chinese visitor numbers are expected to be up 43% in 2019
compared with 2018. Chinese tourists are also forecast to spend more
than £1 billion in the UK in 2019 – an increase of 50% from last year2.
A recent Nielsen report also revealed that 91% of Chinese tourists
travelling abroad would likely spend more if merchants accepted Chinese
mobile payment tools3.
The partnership also sees Holland & Barrett automatically enrolled in
Alipay’s merchant listings, which instantly increases awareness of
retail locations to travellers by pushing notifications to their phones
where they can see available products, opening hours and get directions
to Holland & Barrett stores.
Yana Geng, Business Development Director of Alipay EMEA said: “Vitamins
and dietary supplements are extremely sought-after among Chinese
shoppers, especially when they are travelling overseas. This is because
their level of trust in international brands is typically higher than
that of domestic brands.
Alipay is excited to be working with Holland & Barrett and RiverPay to
bring popular health and wellness products to the masses. This
partnership will enhance Holland & Barrett’s appeal to Chinese visitors
by providing them with the same familiar payment experience that they
enjoy at home and by facilitating e-payments in Chinese Yuan. Holland &
Barrett is the first of many overseas merchants we are targeting in the
VDS market, as we continue our mission to provide Chinese tourists with
a seamless travel and payment experience when travelling abroad.”
About RiverPay (www.riverpayment.com)
RiverPay is an integrated payments and marketing platform to connect
Chinese consumers with overseas merchants. As an authorized payment
service provider of Alipay and WeChat Pay, RiverPay offers technology
solutions and settlement services to allow Chinese consumers to pay in
CNY and merchants to receive USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, and more. RiverPay
currently serves over 12,000 merchants across North America and Europe,
including Saks Fifth Avenue, HBC, Selfridges, Holt Renfrew, Harry Rosen,
Dilawri, Prada, Dolce&Gabbana, Tiffany and Co, De Beers and MaxMara.
1 Statista.com:
Vitamins & Minerals – China
2 https://www.visitbritain.org/uk-expecting-boost-visits-china-chinese-new-year-approaches
3
https://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/cn/docs/2018-trends-for-mobile-payment.pdf
Contacts
Matthew Burrows
The Hoffman Agency
+1 (408) 975-3033
[email protected]
