October 13, 2016: Alipay, the world’s leading mobile payment platform run by Ant Financial Services Group, has partnered with Zapper, the fast growing consumer insights and marketing platform which is enabled by mobile payments. This partnership will allow over 250,000 Chinese tourists visiting the UK to pay using the Alipay app in over 1,000 locations nationwide.

Zapper is the first European mobile partner, allowing over 450 million active Alipay users to pay via the Alipay app across its full estate of affiliated Zapper businesses in the UK, Europe and North America. The partnership demonstrates a strong synergy between both brands in terms of innovative and mobile based QR code technology. With over 85% of mobile payments in China currently made by scanning a QR code, the customer journey will be identical for Alipay users when purchasing goods and services using Zapper.

“With Zapper as a partner, Alipay can further enhance our user experience as they can conveniently shop outside of China and pay with Alipay,” Rita Liu, Head of Alipay EMEA, said. “Meanwhile, merchants, in addition to the Alipay payment solution, can better connect and understand hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists travelling to the UK.”

Scanning a QR code to make simple and secure payments has been the ‘norm’ with Alipay users in China for the last 12 years. Zapper currently provides a similar experience for its near 1 million users across 10 different countries and 12,000 affiliated businesses. With Zapper’s smart QR technology enabled to take payments from the Alipay app, 11.7 million Chinese tourists visiting Europe each year will be able to conveniently pay using Alipay at any venue also accepting Zapper.

Zapper has tie-ups with thousands of restaurants internationally.

Gerry Hooper, CEO Zapper UK & Ireland, said, “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us, pioneering the way by combining our synonymous QR code payment technology. A huge development enabling Chinese tourists to seamlessly continue using the highly popular Alipay app when travelling to the UK and our partnered Zapper venues to appeal more favorably to travelling Alipay users and stand out from the competition.”

According to VisitBritain, more than 250,000 Chinese tourists visited the UK in 2015, an increase in 45% from the previous year and spending a total of £586.22m. With an ever-increasing demand to visit the UK, this gives venues such as Burger & Lobster, CAU, The Big Easy, Vinoteca, Camino and Iberica, already benefiting from Zapper, the ability to strengthen their appeal to the Chinese market.

The post Chinese tourists in UK can use Alipay app appeared first on International Finance.

June 2, 2016: Zapper, a global data insights and mobile payment platform, appointed Jon Birt as its retail sales director. Birt has over 25 years of retail account management experience. He specialises in managing the convenience and symbol group sectors, which over the last few years also included a number of Tier 1 high-street retailers.

Having worked previously for BAT and more recently Payzone and InComm-Europe, Birt joins the Zapper team at what is undoubtedly a very pivotal juncture with both a product and subsequent service which will dramatically enhance the day-to-day operation within this rapidly developing retail sector.

Working alongside Birt will be Jason Cooling, who also has over 25 years retail experience, in both the UK and Ireland, and he joins the team as retail commercial director. Cooling previously worked closely with many famous household names such as; Amazon, Argos, Tesco and Sainsbury, and also has great experience in other sectors including, video gaming and tobacco. Colling will be looking to launch the Zapper solution into the retail sector and create many opportunities for this ubiquitous product.

Cooling comments, “I understand being a retailer requires an extraordinary amount of skill. You have many hats to wear and must know when to wear which in order to be successful. From serving customers and managing employees to stocking new inventory, the job as a retailer is never done and there is always room for improvement. Zapper offers the necessary tools, resources and support retailers need to transform businesses to the future mobile payment age.”

The post Zapper strengthens leadership team appeared first on International Finance.