Enabling Sales to Consumers in China

Despite interest from retailers and consumers, commerce between North American merchants and Mainland China’s population historically had a huge barrier to overcome—namely how to facilitate a payment exchange that would enable the transaction.

In an effort to tear down that wall, Alipay, China’s leading independent third-party online-payment platform, has entered into a cooperative agreement with Philliou Selwanes Partners (PSP), a New York City-based consulting and advisory firm. The partnership positions PSP as an agency of Alipay, charged with promoting the acceptance of the Chinese payment service to North American merchants.

As of November 2007, Alipay, which is based in Hangzhou, China, and is a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group, had more than 56 million users in China and was growing at a rate of more than 80,000 new registered users each day. The average daily transaction volume processed by Alipay exceeded $23 million and the company handled an average of 1,170,000 transactions each day.

In a prepared release, Alipay reported it is the largest online-payment service provider in China, with a market share of more than 54%; its success has both benefited from and contributed to the rapid growth of e-commerce in China.

“As China has undergone a meteoric economic expansion, the opportunities for U.S. retailers have been limited by our differing payment systems,” noted Philip J. Philliou, PSP partner. “This alliance agreement [with Alipay] removes those barriers and opens up great new potential for North American merchants to add millions of dollars in new sales volume from an untapped marketplace.”

PSP plans to work with online merchants and merchant acquirers to integrate Alipay into their existing payment offerings.