Alipay struck an alliance with payments firm Zapper, its latest partnership as the Chinese giant manoeuvres into Europe.

The Chinese company is leveraging Zapper’s estate of affiliated merchants. The partnership will launch “imminently”.

Like Zapper, Alipay’s mobile payments app is based on QR code technology which enables users to scan and pay at the point of sale.

The partnership with Zapper is the latest for Alipay as it looks to enable millions of Chinese tourists to pay for transactions using their mobile devices when they visit Europe.

Previous alliances for the Chinese firm include one with German vendor Wirecard which enables European retailers to accept payments from Alipay users through a QR code scan.

A Scan Alipay app developed by Wirecard is now available for download by retailers in the App Store.

Separately, Alipay more struck a partnership with Ingenico to embed its payment capability point-of-sale terminals across Europe.