While little by little we are recovering the rhythm of life that we had before the pandemic began, shops, restaurants, exhibitions and other places of entertainment see a hopeful situation with the reduction of restrictions on capacity and opening hours of establishments.
In this new paradigm, consumption habits have changed in our country, with consumers more digitized around how to pay for a good or service. This is demonstrated by the data from the last IAdyen Retail Report 2021, which reveals that a 33% of young people from our country between 18 and 39 years old they trust their mobile device or e-wallet to make their purchases.
And this also has an impact on companies. According to the latest edition of the “Study of Payment Methods and Online Fraud” Trust Online and Adigital where it is noted that 37% of the turnover of companies in 2020 came from mobile devices, 4% more than in 2019, which shows the growth in the use of smartphones among Spaniards when paying.
Although the Spanish have introduced mobile payment methods in the way of consuming, how will it be in the case of Chinese consumers, the second world economy and a great opportunity for Spanish companies? In this sense, the Chinese consumer is a much more digitized customer than the Spanish, since 90% of their purchases are made through mobile devices, according to data from Alibaba Group, a leading global technology company with more than 900 million active users within their e-commerce platforms.
This data is not surprising since in China mobile penetration rate is 67%, according to Statista reports. The Asian country is a world leader in 5G technology and whether it is to buy in a supermarket, have a coffee or travel by public transport, the use of mobile payments is essential in your day to day life.
In addition, it has more than 350 million millennials, a quarter of its population that, unlike most European countries, has increasing purchasing power and leads the demand for items in the luxury category. A) Yes, Chinese consumers accounted for 33% of global luxury purchases in 2019 (Inside and outside of the country). It should also be noted that, despite the fact that luxury sales fell worldwide due to the pandemic, according to the Bain & Company Luxury Study, this was not the case in China, which gave a boost to this sector during the “first wave”.
Therefore, it must be taken into account that the so-called “digital natives” already represent more than a third of the consumption of Asia. This is a great incentive for the digital acceleration of Spanish companies and putting China in the focus of their business through the use of tools adapted to the demands of these age groups; without forgetting those Chinese consumers residing in Spain, which with more than 197,000 inhabitants, is the seventh country with the highest number of foreigners living in our territory, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
Faced with this golden opportunity, with more than 100 million daily transactions and hundreds of millions of active users, Alipay stands as the most widely used third-party online payment service provider in China. According to a study conducted with Nielsen in 2019, 100% of Chinese had the Alipay application installed on their mobile phones during their overseas trips. It is a key payment method to offer if you want to expand your business to reach Chinese buyers, as your goal is to increase sales and improve seller conversions.
Its main product is a digital wallet, Alipay Wallet, included in the Alipay mobile application. A mobile platform that not only makes payments possible, but also offers businesses powerful marketing tools, since it allows them to attract a greater number of sales through functions such as geolocation of stores that accept Alipay as a payment method or offer promotions of Unique discounts through the mobile application. Alipay is available in 70 markets and has already been adopted by more than 80 million merchants around the world.
Buyers can use Alipay as a payment method in an ecommerce that has it integrated into its website, through the Alipay mobile application or in a physical store that offers this solution. Undoubtedly, if a company wants to attract the Chinese consumer, in their country of origin or in China, offering the leading payment method in China, Alipay, is a “must”. In this sense, relying on international partners such as Adyen greatly facilitates the task. Adyen is the payment platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies, and also for SMEs, since it incorporates a modern end-to-end infrastructure that connects with the payment methods preferred by consumers worldwide, both through online channels, mobile phones and in physical stores.
With this hopeful horizon, China is the window towards the economic recovery of Spanish businesses with Alipay and Adyen as its best allies.
