Beauchamp Place enhances payment for Chinese visitors
By Retail Technology | Tuesday May 7 2019
Merchants at iconic London shopping destination Beauchamp Place have implemented new payment technology to accommodate Chinese visitors
Through a dedicated mobile app powered by SafeCharge, Beauchamp Place merchants will be able to accept WeChat Pay and Alipay at the point of sale, in an effort to provide a better customer experience at check-out.
Having recently witnessed an increase in the number of Chinese customers visiting the area, local merchants saw an opportunity to embrace technology as a strategic differentiator in order to become more attractive and provide the shopping experience these customers expect.
According to statistics from the UK China Visitor Alliance (UKCVA), the number of Chinese visitors to the UK soared by over 150% in the last five years, injecting billions of pounds into the local economy.
Chinese tourists
With the ever increasing number of Chinese tourists willing to pay with either WeChat or Alipay, Beauchamp Place began the rollout of the SafeCharge Point of Sale app across its well-known brands, enabling merchants to process QR code-based transactions for the most frictionless tap-and-go shopping experience.
Michael McKenna, store owner of Beauchamp Place merchant McKenna & Co., said: “We have seen a spike in Chinese shoppers visiting our store since Christmas and since we expect this trend to grow further, we decided to integrate the latest payments technology that would allow our customers to pay conveniently with their preferred Chinese wallet of choice. The decision was also driven by the need to authorise single high-value transactions - sometimes over 10 thousand pounds - which can be difficult with normal payment methods.”
