Swedish department store Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) opened the door to Chinese mobile payment systems through a deal with fintech provider Wirecard.

In a statement, Wirecard said it is collaborating with Cimple Marketing, a Nordic payment and marketing company specialising in Chinese consumers, to equip two NK stores with the kit necessary to accept commonly used payment systems.

NK joins a growing trend among global businesses to enable Chinese mobile payment services, as the number of tourists from the country grows.

Wirecard cited research conducted by Nielsen and Alipay in 2018 which showed 60 per cent of Chinese tourists paid by mobile while travelling.

Fredrik Neumann, VP of sales retail at Wirecard, noted mobile payments are “incredibly widespread in China”.

With the country also “one of the biggest travelling nations in the world, it is essential for merchants” to enable the tourists to use their preferred method of payment, he added.

Wirecard stated the volume of Chinese mobile payment transactions it processed had “more than doubled in the last year” (without specifying a date), with an average spend in department stores of €810.