Dairy Farm and NETS team up to roll out WeChat Pay in Singapore

Dairy Farm Singapore Group and NETS have brought China's e-payment, WeChat Pay, to retail outlets in Singapore, starting with 7-Eleven and Guardian.From 1 November 2018, WeChat Pay users, including visitors from China and Chinese nationals based in Singapore, are able to use WeChat Pay as a payment method at over 600 retail outlets in Singapore. This includes Cold Storage, Giant, 7-Elevent and Guardian stores island-wide. This service is currently piloted at the 7-Eleven and Guardian stores at Changi International Airport and key tourist destinations such as Orchard and Chinatown districts.According to the Singapore Tourism Board, visitors from China had increased by approximately 13%, from 2.8 million in 2016 to 3.2 million in 2017. The partnership between Dairy Farm Singapore and NETS together with WeChat aims to "better" cater to the growing number of China visitors, by offering visitors a convenient way to pay when they shop in Singapore.NETS head of merchant services, Alvin Seck said that working with payment partners such as WeChat and retailers such as Dairy Farm Group enabled NETS to roll out new payment services for consumers quickly while also minimising adoption costs for merchants. He added that with this partnership, 7-Eleven and Guardian along with Cold Storage and Giant will be able to make use of its existing NETS uPOS terminals to accept WeChat Pay, in addition to existing NETS, QR, NETS FlashPay, credit and debit payments.Dairy Farm Singapore’s regional finance director, Tom van der Lee explained that this latest payment mode service is part of the multi-format retailer’s digital transformation journey in line with the government’s Smart Nation drive. He added that Cold Storage has seen cashless payment increase by 6%, while at Guardian by 3% since the newly installed unified NETS POS terminals last year."More customers are adopting cashless payments, thanks to easier and faster payment transactions with the uPOS terminal plus the convenience of the wide array of payment options to choose from across our Cold Storage, Giant, 7-Eleven and Guardian stores," van der Lee said.Marketing has reached out to NETS and Dairy Farm on marketing plans.Most recently, NETS was appointed to unify e-payment solutions across coffee shops, hawker centres and industrial canteens. This was following a call for collaboration by Enterprise Singapore, together with the Housing and Development Board (HDB), National Environment Agency (NEA) and JTC Corporation to implement e-payment solutions.In addition, it also partnered with UnionPay, allowing consumers to use NETSPay app for e-payments while travelling overseas. Users can also send and receive money from other NETSPay users via mobile numbers or QR code.