NEW YORK – Alipay, the world’s leading digital payment platform, operated by Ant Financial Services Group, and Walgreens, Wednesday announced a collaboration that will bring Alipay’s mobile payment platform to thousands of Walgreens locations throughout the U.S.

“Walgreens is focused on making shopping more convenient for our customers. This collaboration has particular significance for our Chinese customer population, who now has a new way to experience Walgreens,” said Richard Ashworth, Walgreens president of operations. “Not only can they buy our products via our dedicated store on Alibaba’s Tmall Global marketplace, but they will now also be able to shop in the U.S. using Alipay as they would in China. We look forward to the ongoing evolution of our partnership with Alibaba Group.”

Richard Ashworth

Alipay is the world’s leading digital payment provider and together with its global joint venture partners, serves one billion users worldwide. According to a Nielsen report published in January, “More than two-thirds of Chinese tourists said they used their smartphones to pay abroad in 2018. Nearly 60 percent of surveyed merchants saw growth in both foot traffic and revenue, after adopting Alipay.” Alipay is currently available at 3,000 Walgreens stores including cities where Alipay users travel the most such as New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas, and by April, Alipay’s availability will expand to more than 7,000 Walgreens locations across the U.S.

The Alipay collaboration will allow Walgreens to further meet the unique needs of the more than four million Chinese travelers who are in the U.S at any given time. Walgreens will be the largest U.S. drugstore chain to deploy Alipay, providing Alipay users with potential economic savings as credit cards typically have a higher foreign transaction fee.

“This is a key strategic partnership for achieving awareness in the U.S., as Walgreens is one of the country’s largest drugstore chains. Alipay’s offline, in-store payment service is offered in more than 40 countries and regions, so we are excited to partner with a company that has been trusted across America since 1901, and is constantly evolving to provide more Chinese consumers a seamless and familiar way to pay,” said Yulei Wang, general manager, Alipay North America.