Chinese mobile payment methods continue to gain popularity.

Epassi is a pioneer when it comes to mobile payments in the Nordic regions. At the same time, Epassi is also the trusted partner of Alipay and WeChat Pay platforms in Finland and elsewhere in Europe. Epassi offers local merchants the opportunity to receive Chinese mobile payments. Epassi also provides marketing services around these payment methods and supporting merchants' sales goals.

Chinese New Year is the most important celebration of the Chinese year and they celebrate it with their family and relatives. A lot of red envelopes are also distributed during the New Year. The red envelope is a traditional gift for coin money during holidays and other special events. In 2020, the Chinese New Year was celebrated from 24 to 31 January 2020. The year 2020 is marked the year of the rat.

During the 2020 New Year campaigns, China's largest mobile payment platforms, Alipay and WeChat Pay, have once again invested heavily in activating their user base. In China, a variety of engaging games and promotions are very popular, and there are many different promotional campaigns in China, sponsored by, for example, Alipay and WeChat.

Gain more sales by offering your customers special gifts during holiday-season.

Epassi works closely with its merchants to provide the best customer experience for their Chinese customers. The tax-free shops operating at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport were ready to test how such campaigns would improve sales at their stores located in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. They chose to offer an extra 10% discount at their speciality stores in Helsinki-Vantaa to WeChat Pay-users.

The tax-free shops at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport have been accepting WeChat as a payment method beginning of 2020, just in time for the Chinese New Year 2020. Prior to WeChat, Alipay payment method and China UnionPay have also been used in stores.

The results of the New Year campaign have been excellent. During the campaign, WeChat clearly became the most popular means of payment for Chinese travellers, and the average payment made with WeChat was up to 50% more the amount paid with Alipay and China Union Pay.

Of course, Epassi is also pleased with the result “It's great to see how merchants are ready to get involved in these kind of campaigns and are warmly welcoming Chinese shoppers to their stores. These numbers alone tell us that by offering the local payment methods boost more sales! More marketing activities our merchants do towards Chinese shoppers, the better results they will get."

The number of Chinese tourists has been steadily increasing in Finland and elsewhere in the Nordic countries.

Last year, 116,000 Chinese overnight stays were recorded in Helsinki alone. Chinese tax-free shopping increased by +32% compared to last year. A total of 499,000 overnight stays from Asia were recorded in 2019 in Helsinki. Overall, the most popular travel time in Helsinki in 2019 was May. The autumn months were also popular. In 2019, 659,343 Chinese travellers arrived to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

The Chinese are still the biggest money users and spend € 910 per visit (2018). In 2017, the Chinese spent an estimated € 1,200 per visit. In total, in 2018 the Chinese left around € 413 million euros in Finland, which makes them the second largest group of tourists to leave money in Finland. Most money is spent on dining, shopping and accommodation. 

Merchants who have Chinese shoppers are advised to accept Chinese mobile payments at their stores. Please read more here.

If you are interested about Epassi's services, please contact us so we can help you! You can reach us by emailing us: clearing@epassi.fi or calling +358 50 317 2597. We are more than happy to help you to get started!