Intime Inks Strategic Cooperation with Alipay Wallet to Offer Brand-New Off-line Payment Experience

Monday, 18 November 2013, 11:40 HKT/SGT

HONG KONG, Nov 18, 2013 - (ACN Newswire) - Intime Retail (Group) Co. Ltd. ("Intime Retail" or the "Company", Hong Kong Stock Exchange stock code: 01833, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") announces that on November 15, the Company established strategic cooperation relationship with Alipay Wallet. Since November 15, the Company will offer "Face-to-Face Payment" service to consumers in 29 Intime Department Stores and Intime Gate Stores to co-explore mobile payment and value-added services to customers for future off-line stores. The two sides will further deepen mutual cooperation in relation to system, membership, etc. Intime Retail is the first department store chain enterprise in China to introduce Alipay's service, marking a cross-sector alliance between two powerful enterprises.

Intime Retail has already opened its public service account in Alipay Wallet as the payee of the Alipay "Face-to-Face Payment" service in Intime's stores, registering over 10,000 fans currently. During Intime's 15th Grand Anniversary (November 15 to 18), consumers may try brand-new patterns of payment by choosing Alipay Face-to-Face payment (sound wave payment or code scanning payment) to promote the selectivity and convenience of payment, and also have an opportunity to win 1 set of Tmall Magic Box (valued at RMB399) on site by drawing a lottery. The first 10,000 customers on every day during the anniversary may even win cash red packet of up to RMB4, 999.

It's learned that consumers may open "Alipay Wallet" in their mobiles to check out via "Face-to-Face Payment", and select sound wave payment (which could be accessed without internet connection) or code scanning payment. While selecting code scanning payment, consumers may pay by scanning the two-dimension code appearing on the POS and inputting Alipay password. While selecting sound wave payment, consumers may pay by directing the microphone of their mobiles at designated area.

FanZhiming, President of the Business Group of Ali Micro-Finance in China and Responsible Officer of Alipay Wallet announced on November 13 that, Alipay Wallet will develop as an independent brand to embrace more promising off-line market. It's reported that the number of Alipay Mobile Payment users has exceeded 100 million while the number of Alipay Wallet users has approximated to 100 million. During the 1111 Shopping Carnival this year, number of transactions via mobile payment amounted to 45.18 million, recording volume of over RMB11.3 billion. Meanwhile, "Profitable Wallet" will become a unique advantage of Alipay Wallet.

"It is a forward-looking decision for Intime Retail to embrace mobile payment, as around 100 million Alipay Wallet users wish to purchase on-line and also make payment off-line at bricks-and-mortar shops. Intime Retail is among the first movers in China to welcome these emerging users. It is an innovation in both idea and practice. We will keep stepping up cooperation between the two parties by complementing each other and will join hands to produce better consumer experience and facilitate better integration of on-line and off-line payment", said Fan Zhiming, President of the Business Group of Ali Micro-Finance in China and Responsible Officer of Alipay Wallet.

Intime Retail CEO Chen Xiaodong saw this cooperation as a joint exploration made by Alipay Wallet and Intime Retail to explore the future of mobile payment and retail service. In the Internet era, every aspect of economy, life, culture and politics would be subject to profound change. Online and off-line payment would be increasingly integrated and intertwined. At department stores, consumption, transaction and service would be refreshingly interesting. And the enterprises should be Internet-minded to gain a footing in the future by understanding and supporting the Internet. In the future, the competition would center on consumer experience and efficiency between different business models and Intime Retail targets to be a mega-data-based shopping solution provider, putting consumers first.

Since October this year, following its customer-first philosophy and Internet-based initiative, Intime Retail has been making all-out efforts at widening distribution and consolidating its presence on the Internet, aiming to be a shopping solution provider. During "Singles' Day Shopping Festival" this year, sales at Intime Retail's Tmall flagship store on November 11th jumped by six times year-on-year. Notably, the sales during the first 25 minutes on that day amounted to the sales for the whole of the same day of last year. Also, the store gained the first spot in the category of suitcases and bags on Tmall.

Analysts are generally positive on the cooperation. With increasing penetration of smart phones and rapid growth of mobile Internet, the Alipay Wallet is showing great vision, ambition and capability to move into the field of off-line payment. Drawing on the combination of three brands which comprise Intime Department Stores, Intime Shopping Centers and Intime.com, Intime Retail is expected to embrace the future model of shops by making stores more Internet-based and putting customers first, delivering better consumer experience.

Topic: Press release summary Sectors: Daily Finance, Daily News
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