Japanese department store adopts Alipay for Chinese customers

Japanese department store chain, Kintetsu, is hoping to attract more Chinese customers by offering more convenient payment options and using Chinese social media network Sina Weibo to publish information about the store. It will be the first Japan-based department store to use Alipay, the Chinese online payment solution, in four of its stores in Osaka. According to data just released by the Japan National Tourism Organisation, the number of visitors from China doubled to five million in 2015, while that constituted about a quarter of all visitors, 41% of all tourism spending, equivalent to around $12.3bn, was attributed to the group.

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Japanese department store chain Kintetsu announced on Monday that it will introduce China's online payment solution Alipay in four of its department stores in Osaka so as to attract more Chinese tourists.

According to Kintetsu, it would be the first department store chain in Japan to use Alipay, though the well-known Chinese online payment solution has already been used by the discount chain store Don Quijote and the consumer electronics retailer Yamada Denki in Japan since last year.

"Alipay is a payment platform with over 400 million users in China. Chinese customers will be able to use the Alipay app on their cellphones to pay for the commodities they have bought in our department stores, which will be very convenient for them." said Aki Shokyoku, foreign business director of Abeno Harukas Kintetsu Main Store.

"We want to make payment more convenient for Chinese tourists so as to attract more Chinese customers." said Shokyoku.

"Targeting Chinese customers, we have taken a number of promotion measures, such as giving discount for using China's Union Pay bank cards and offering Lucky Bags during Chinese Spring Festival, though Lucky Bags were traditionally sold only in the Japanese New Year." said Shokyoku.

Moreover, Kintetsu department store started to use Chinese social media network Sina Weibo to publish information about the store, hoping to attract more Chinese visitors.

According to the Japanese government, tourists visiting Japan from Chinese Mainland from January through November in 2015 reached 4.65 million, up by 109.4 percent year on year. Endit