WeChat, as you have seen, is an indispensable application in China.
It’s common to think of WeChat as just a messaging app and compare it to WhatsApp, but it has so much more to offer.
WeChat’s most popular features, apart from its messaging service, also include games, video chatting, phone calling, and QR code scanning. Not to mention the user-friendly payment system — WeChat Pay.
What is WeChat Pay?
WeChat’s virtual wallet payment system was introduced in 2013, is extremely user-friendly, and is integrated within the app itself. This means that users can pay for things without leaving the app to visit another website.
It allows users to connect their bank accounts and purchase daily items with a single tap on their phone.
This service analyses and optimises o2o consumer experience, and delivers professional internet solutions for physical business when combined with WeChat official accounts. It is one of the default mobile payment systems used by the Chinese consumer.
WeChat Pay has-
1)Quick Pay
2)QR Code Payment
3)In-App Web-based Payment
4)In-App Payment
5)Mini Program Payment, to fulfil different payment situations.
How safe is it?
WeChat Pay offers full transaction insurance 24 hours a day, seven days a week to protect users. It also incorporates data encryption, internet phishing protection, and payment limitations as security measures.
User behaviour is also continuously monitored for suspicious activity, and multi-step verification systems are in place to ensure users can make secure payments.
Can overseas businesses benefit from WeChat Pay?
WeChat Pay is now accepted in 13 foreign currencies. Retailers in 28 countries and regions have adopted it as a payment mechanism for online and offline transactions.
WeChat Pay is an app created specifically keeping the Chinese consumers, who want to travel and shop abroad, in mind.
Here is how overseas vendors can improve the quality of the service they provide to Chinese customers, through WeChat Pay.
a) Real Time Currency Exchange
WeChat Pay enables Chinese customers to pay in RMB while making a purchase abroad.
Let’s say the products are in GBP. WeChat Pay uses the China Construction Bank’s (CCB) real-time exchange rate to transfer GBP for Chinese customers to pay with. This method is quite convenient because it removes the need to exchange foreign currency and so saves the additional exchange fee.
The merchants will receive GBP as the settlement currency rather than needing to exchange money. WeChat provides a cross-border payment solutions, and functions as a bridge between Chinese clients and international merchants in this process.
b) Overcoming The Language Barrier
Because they are headquartered in another country, merchants may encounter significant challenges when working with Chinese customers. Aside from communication issues, Chinese customers’ buying habits and styles are quite foreign to merchants abroad.
For starters, during the purchasing process, a fluent communication with a payment processor they are familiar with, can assist international merchants in providing a better service and experience to their Chinese customers.
Once the Chinese tourists have departed, the foreign businesses can utilise WeChat’s promotional products to retain long-term communication and contact with them, perhaps opening the door to future transactions.
In Closing
Given the number of users WeChat has, and the endless possibilities and features like WeChat Pay that it possesses, it would be highly helpful if local and international companies began to use this platform to build their business.
This can be accomplished by establishing a WeChat E-commerce or, as it is also known, a WeChat store, which we shall discuss in a future blog. So, stay tuned 😊
