Camden Market targets Chinese tourists with WeChat payment option

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Nov 24, 2017

Camden Market, London’s fourth biggest tourist destination, has become the first in the UK to launch WeChat Pay for its Chinese visitors.

Widely adopted in China, WeChat Pay is an e-wallet payment solution which accounts for 40% of the Chinese mobile payment market, according to iResearch. In 2017 alone, €1.5 trillion in payments have been processed by the mobile payments company.

Its availability in Europe will be crucial for retailers, as Chinese consumers spend more money than European and US tourists combined, and 50% of luxury purchases in Europe are made by Asian tourists.

To make WeChat Pay available at the point of sale, Camden Market partnered with SafeCharge, a leading payments technology company. SafeCharge CEO David Avgi said the innovative payment method, which offers more flexibility than other payment solutions, is the “next big payment phenomenon in Europe”.

"We are extremely pleased to be working with WeChat and SafeCharge to integrate WeChat Pay into our point of sales system at Camden Market," said Ceri Davies, Operations Director of Camden Market.

"With hundreds of thousands of Chinese visitors coming to London each year, we feel that this is another way in which we can continue to promote the heritage of Camden Market abroad, and attract new visitors to our shops, stalls, and restaurants.”

"Chinese/Asian students and tourists have flooded into London over the last few years. Recently, more and more of these shoppers have started acknowledging the existence of Camden Town. As a retailer, it is our job to create a flexible, convenient shopping experience for our customers and WeChat Pay allows us to do this for our new demographic of visitor," added Han Chin, Creative Director at Studio Collection.

In addition to processing payments, WeChat Pay allows retailers to communicate with customers in real time. The payment option will roll out in stages across Camden Market.