How to accept Alipay on your site

In the United States, we often think of digital payment methods as familiar brands with a financial services arm — think Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. While Americans use these platforms frequently, the Chinese market offers even greater growth potential for this technology. Major players like Tencent’s WeChat Pay or QQ Wallet are quickly becoming popular. The long-reigning champion of this economy, however, is the Alibaba Group subsidiary Alipay.

With COVID-19 forcing many to shop from home, customers are prioritizing comfort with mobile and online payment methods. Financial services giant Chase conducted a survey at the end of 2020 and found 54 percent of consumers used digital banking tools more than they did the previous year as a result of the pandemic. This trend points to overarching changes in consumer behaviors and their long-standing preference for convenience.

As Alipay continues to grow and enters the U.S. market, and as digital payment platforms continue to become the norm, now’s the time to learn how to accept Alipay on your site, ensuring your e-commerce business is ready for this exciting change.

Alipay in the United States

With the increase of Chinese tourism to the United States (COVID-19 downturns notwithstanding) and expanded Alipay implementation in America, knowing how to accept Alipay on your site is essential to tapping into this rapidly growing market. Within the last several years, brands as wide ranging as Guess and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company have been early adopters of the platform in the United States to attract these tourists and overseas customers.

After the pandemic dip, the number of visitors from China is expected to top three million in the next few years, according to Statista. With Alipay holding a dominant 56 percent market share in China, that’s a lot of potential business to take advantage of.

At the same time, Alipay’s journey through the U.S. regulatory landscape hasn’t been easy. The economic stalemate between the United States and China led to an exchange of sanctions and product bans. This eventually resulted in a presidential order banning both Alipay and WeChat Pay in early 2021. The Biden administration has since lifted these bans, updating their criteria for deeming such technologies as “unacceptable risks.” Now, several major chains, numerous brick-and-mortar businesses, and online retailers accept Alipay.

With the changing economic and geopolitical winds blowing in Alipay’s favor, it’s an excellent time to take advantage of it. The postpandemic spending flourish will prove to be beneficial for merchants who accept an array of payment platforms.

Using Alipay with Stripe

As an online merchant, creating a secure and seamless purchasing experience is a top priority. By providing a familiar payment method that fits into customers’ regular buying habits, you’re setting potential buyers at ease and reducing friction for them to complete the purchase. These are some of the reasons it’s essential to understand how to accept Alipay on your site.

One easy way is to use payment processor Stripe to easily collect Alipay payments at checkout. Just follow a few simple steps with minimal backend work:

1. Set up a Stripe account.
2. Ensure that your site’s checkout settings are compatible with customer payments and Stripe itself — for Stripe’s Alipay integration, purchases must be in a single currency and be a one-time line item (i.e., not a recurring payment).
3. Enable Alipay as the main payment method for customers when they check out.
4. Make sure you’re prepared to fulfill customer orders.
5. Test the integration.

It’s that simple. By allowing Alipay to be a customer’s preferred payment at checkout, you’re on your way to creating a seamless customer purchasing experience.

Integrating payments with Jotform

With Alipay activated in your Stripe account, your next step is to make sure your payment forms are easy to use and attractive. With Jotform’s customizable Stripe checkout form templates, you can build tailor-made forms that match your branding, allowing you to accept purchases from all over the globe.

Any per-purchase fees are covered through your Stripe account, which manages any international payment methods you choose to accept — meanwhile, Jotform takes no additional fees on each charge. You can make mobile-friendly forms in more than 25 languages, giving you free rein to apply discounts, send receipts, and personalize the design of your checkout page for an end-to-end customer experience.

Jotform also has more than 300 custom payment forms you can embed on your website, so you can include Stripe and Alipay in all types of purchases, whether customers are booking hotel rooms, ordering hardware, or even making a donation.

When you’re researching how to accept Alipay on your site, take the time to understand the product itself and the helpful tools that allow you to use it. With Stripe and Jotform, you’ll bring Alipay and its customer base right to the doorstep of your e-commerce business.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk