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Walmart partners with Alibaba in mobile payment

Xinhua, May 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

Walmart has teamed up with e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba to allow customers to make purchases using mobile payment in 25 of its stores in southern China, as the global retail giant targets the growing number of Chinese mobile shoppers.

Walmart announced on Wednesday that visitors to its stores in the metropolis of Shenzhen can now pay using Alipay Wallet, the mobile application of Alibaba's online payment unit Alipay. The branches have scanners to read barcodes in the app, with payment then taken in seconds.

Walmart said it expects more of its stores to start accepting mobile payment.

China's mobile payment market is rising, with the transaction volume on third-party platforms exceeding 7 trillion yuan (1.1 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, according to a report by consultancy Analysys International.

Alipay Wallet has over 270 million active users, according to Alipay statistics. More than 40,000 retail stores operating in China, including supermarket Carrefour, accept payment through the app.

Walmart's customers in China shrank by 5.7 percent year on year in 2014. The retailer owns more than 410 outlets across the country. Endi