China-based Alipay announced separate agreements with payment terminal maker Poynt and payments solutions provider North American Bancard (NAB), to expand its reach across the US.

Poynt
The partnership with Poynt, which describes itself as the “maker of the world’s first smart terminal”, will allow Alipay’s 520 million registered users in China and beyond to make payments across all Poynt devices in North America.

In a statement, Alipay explained the agreement was tailored towards providing millions of Chinese travellers visiting North America with seamless payment experiences.

Poynt was formed in 2013 by Google Wallet founder and former PayPal executive Osama Bedier, to “revolutionise the payment experience for merchants and their customers”.

The smart terminal features innovations such as dual touchscreens, wireless connectivity through 3G or Wi-Fi, and a claimed seamless connection to a merchant’s existing payment processor.

Souheil Badran, president of Alipay North America, said Poynt is the ideal partner due to the wide range of capabilities it provides, including hardware, software and its agnostic approach.

“We partnered with Poynt because we share a commitment to enabling a modern commerce experience for merchants and customers alike,” he said.

NAB
In a separate statement, Alipay said its service will also be integrated with NAB’s Electronic Payment Exchange (EPX) processing platform, through a variety of its products including gateways, terminals and mobile payment solutions.

The move means a number of US merchants “of all sizes can benefit by offering Alipay as a payment type in their stores”.

Like the partnership with Poynt, Alipay said Chinese consumers visiting the US will be able to use its services in North America, or shop online from North American merchants.

NAB said it has 120,000 supporting merchants.

Alipay estimated the number of Chinese consumers visiting North America will reach 4 million in 2017, while the “Chinese middle class is presently the fastest growing online consumer market in the world”, and is expected to reach 600 million by 2020.

NAB’s president and CEO Marc Gardner said its goal was always to ensure “that our merchants have every payment tool at their fingertips to attract customers both online and offline”.