Lane Crawford said Thursday it is offering customers the option to pay for their purchases with Apple Pay at the retailer’s Mainland China locations.
“We are very excited to be among the first retailers to launch Apple Pay in China,” said Andrew Keith, president of Lane Crawford. “Offering Apple Pay as a payment option to our customers is another important step towards an even stronger connected commerce strategy, constantly evolving and leveraging on the digital and mobile world which is vitally important in Asia.”
Apple said in June that more and more U.S. retailers were signing up its digital wallet service, which offers a unique encryption technology. These companies include Forever 21, Express, J.C. Penney and Levi’s.
Hong Kong-based Lane Crawford has five stores in Mainland China, two in Beijing, one in Shanghai, and one in Chengdu.
Apple Pay officially launched in China on Feb. 18 and has already been embraced by the country’s largest bank, ICBC, as well as international retailers and fast food operators with Chinese operations, such as Carrefour, 7-Eleven and KFC, as well as e-commerce players such as JD.com, Meilishuo, Jumei and travel giants Ctrip and Qunar.
The country, which is Apple’s second-biggest market by revenue, is home to 620 million mobile phone users, according to statistics released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in December.
As well as being a huge market, China’s hundreds of millions of mobile phone users are already embracing mobile payment platforms with enthusiasm unmatched in any other country. The same CNNIC report also showed 358 million people in China had bought goods and services using their mobile phone.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean smooth sailing for Apple Pay in China, with these hundreds of millions of consumers already using WeChat Wallet, operated by social network and gaming giant Tencent Holding Ltd., and Alipay, run by Alibaba Group’s Internet finance affiliate, Ant Financial Services Group.