Chemist Warehouse adopts Alipay across New Zealand

Alipay, China’s largest mobile payments business, and leading pharmacy and retailer Chemist Warehouse, has today announced a new partnership to accept payments from Chinese migrants, students and visitors across its stores in New Zealand.

From today, Chinese nationals in New Zealand will be able to pay using Alipay at Chemist Warehouse’s 14 stores around the country, and on Chemist Warehouse’s online store, providing many consumers access to their payment method of choice.

While New Zealand’s borders are currently closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chemist Warehouse will also offer Alipay to Chinese visitors and students once borders reopen. More than 407,000 people visited New Zealand from China in 2019, with Chinese students also accounting for almost 45 per cent of international students.

Chemist Warehouse New Zealand CEO, Azman Haroon, said the partnership would enable the company to offer best-in-class service to its Chinese clientele.

“We are excited to launch this new partnership with Alipay, which will support our commitment to providing superior service to our customers, whether they are shopping in-store or online,” Mr Haroon said.

“Alipay also offers our Chinese customers a payment method which is familiar to them, with the bonus during the COVID-19 pandemic of being mobile and contactless.”

Andrew Graham, Alipay Senior Business Development Manager said he was pleased to support a critical business during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pharmacy sector is more critical than ever before during this pandemic, so we are delighted to support Chemist Warehouse in offering a familiar and contactless payment option to their Chinese consumers nationwide,” Mr Graham said.

“This partnership also represents an extension of the long-standing relationship between Chemist Warehouse the Alibaba ecosystem through Alibaba Cloud, Tmall Global and Cainiao across multiple markets, and we are pleased to welcome Alipay into this relationship in New Zealand.”

The 2018 New Zealand census reported there were 231,387 people residing in New Zealand who identify as ethnically Chinese, accounting for almost five per cent of the country’s national population, and the third largest ethnic group behind NZ European and Māori.

Operated by Ant Group, Alipay serves more than 1.3 billion users worldwide together with its global e-wallet partners.

100 per cent of surveyed Chinese visitors use Alipay according to a 2019 Nielsen study. The study also revealed 89 per cent of Chinese visitors to Europe are more likely to shop and spend if more merchants accepted mobile platforms such as Alipay.