How to add Alipay or WeChatPay onto my website?

If you are a foreign brand looking at entering the China market or targeting Chinese customers overseas, then Alipay or WeChatPay are a must. Both of these third party platforms handle payment transactions.

Alipay has been around for about a decade now. With this provider, once the buyer makes a purchase on your website, the platform will hold the money in escrow until the delivery of the product is confirmed by your consumer. Once this is done you receive the payment.

WeChat Pay has been available to overseas vendors since early 2016. It works slightly differently; it allows customers in China to pay for goods directly via online transfer from their account. Buyer receives a QR code to scan through their WeChatPay smartphone application for approving transactions.

There are two ways you can go about integrating these platforms into your website. You can either write code that uses the API request and reply fields to integrate the platform’s cross-border PC payment solution into your existing order management system.

Or you can implement it via one of the third party providers such as Payssion, Ingenico, Optile or Stripe.

Why should you add Alipay or WechatPay?

The estimated yearly third-party mobile payment transaction volume in Mainland China is about 152.77 trillion according to Ipsos 2018 Q4 Third-Party Mobile Payment User Report. Annual transaction number is 10.4 trillion, a 24% Year-To-Year increase. 54% of user’s daily payment transactions happen via third-party payment providers such as WeChat and Alipay.

WeChat Pay and Alipay are the market leaders for mobile payment overseas and can help you to tap into this enormous market. They are the two biggest and most known payment solution platforms in China. More and more global e-commerce companies have been implementing one of the two.

You should consider adding Alipay or WechatPay to your website if you are interested in reaching the local customers in China, providing seamless shopping experience. Adding one of the payment solutions to your website will help you to build trust with your Chinese customers, as these payment options are widely used and most trusted. Another major advantage is that you will be able to charge your customer in real time in the CNY and then finalize the payment in your currency.

Last but not least both of these payment platforms provide high levels of security. User activity is constantly monitored for anything suspicious and multi-step verification processes are in place to ensure users are able to make payments securely.

What documents should be prepared?

When opening an account directly with both of these payment providers you will be asked to submit the following documents together with your application:

Business Registration Certificate, Financial License, Anti-Money Laundering Questionnaire, ID certificates of Directors, Main Contacts and Legal Representatives.

How long will it take to get the application approved?

You should be prepared that processing the application could take about a month, both in the case of Alipay or WechatPay. They need time to check your business model and verify all the documents provided in accordance with the local law and companies requirements.