HELSINKI, Sept. 1 -- Finland's biggest chain of department stores Stockmann agreed on Friday to install China's Alipay as one of its payment methods.
The move was considered a milestone for the Chinese mobile payment platform to be recognized in Europe.
The first sale ever done through Alipay at a Stockmann cashier desk was operated on Friday morning by the giant retailer's chief commercial officer Anna Salmi, who sold a pair of glass mugs to Yin Wei, chief financial officer of Finnish mobile payment company ePassi, Alipay's partner in Finland.
Yin spent a few seconds in scanning the barcode and confirming the payment before he took over the parcel from Salmi. "I hope this represents the future of payment method in Finland," he said.
As Yin explained, the money will be transferred in the background from the customer's Alipay account to ePassi and further to Stockmann.
Salmi said she was not surprised by the speed of the transaction, as she had seen it on internet before. What made her most excited was the fact that Alipay is much more than a payment method.
"For us it is part of the deal to help the customers with pre-know -- what's here, what we offer, what services that we have, hopefully at some stages even open a dialogue box where customers can get service," Salmi told Xinhua.
"It is about also managing the expectations, and getting those from the right level. (We) hopefully get some feedback as well through that channel. That will help us to develop our services to be more suitable for the Chinese tourists," she added.
The Chinese tourists have been the second biggest national group at Stockmann, following Finland's neighboring country Russia.
"With the speed that it has been growing, I think it's very meaningful for us, as Alipay is the key payment method for the Chinese tourists," said Salmi.
Now that the new system is in place, an internal training for the employees to adapt to the payment method will be carried out soon. Salmi predicted the overall launch of Alipay in the flagship department store in central Helsinki would start in the middle of September.
An effort to expand the use of Alipay more widely to other Stockmann shops in Finland and in the Baltics is optional, according to Salmi.
In a country where bankcards have been available since 1980s, Finnish citizens have been relying on bank cards and the banks are backing this traditional payment heavily. The situation seems challenging for emerging mobile payment players.
"Only lately the mobile payment has become a general payment thanks to our cooperation with Alipay," said Risto Virkkala, CEO of ePassi, noting that the cooperation has had its merchant network expanded rapidly as well.
While the Western Europe is still relying on the old legacy, Chinese mobile payment ecosystem has been developed from scratch to become quite mature.
"China is way more advanced in mobile payments," said Virkkala. He told Xinhua that he believed "the approach is now coming to Europe."
With some 600,000 customers and 30 percent market share, ePassi has become the biggest mobile payment operator in Finland with a vision to expand to the whole Nordic area as well.
In collaboration with ePassi, Alipay was first introduced to Finland last year, and the business was highlighted by a launching ceremony of the Single's Day global online shopping festival in Rovaniemi, an arctic tourist destination in northern Finland.
Early this year, Finland's national carrier Finnair activated Alipay on its flight from Shanghai to Helsinki, becoming the first airline to offer the online payment system onboard.
初中英语作文:吃夜宵的坏处 The Bad Side of Eating Food at Night
英语专八范文:好邻居的标准是什么?
初中英语作文:电子书的好处 The Advantages of E-books
英文情书:Thank You For Your Love感谢你的爱
2016年6月英语四级作文真题:写感谢老师的信
英语六级作文:代沟
前CEO讲述诺基亚的盛衰往事
英语六级作文:网络游戏
英语四级作文:看电影的好处
英语四级作文:网络谣言
初中英语作文:狗狗的最后一天 The Dog's Last Day
英语四级作文:不文明游客
英语四级作文:毕业后的选择
英语四级作文:自私和贪婪
初中英语作文:我爱班级活动 I Love Class Activity
名人情书之“维克多.雨果的情书”
初中英语作文:当我面对荣誉的时候 When I Face Honor
潘基文2016年保护臭氧层国际日致辞
英文情书:The Day We Met我们相遇的日子
英语专八范文:如何看待儿童早上学
英语专八范文
初中英语作文:成为一个勇敢的女孩 To Be A Brave Girl
英语六级作文:曝光不文明的市民
英语专八美文:净化心灵空间
为刺激旅游业发展 日本推出88个“动漫圣地”
3步教你判断酒店真的每天都洗床单吗?
英语四级作文:创造自己的人生
英文情书:Love Of My Life我一生的爱
英语四级作文:更换工作
专八范文:重大决定是否可以一个人单独决定
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |