Lagardère to roll out WeChat Pay at Paris Charles de Gaulle

By Andrew Pentol | Friday, 16 February 2018 11:11

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WeChat pay will be launched in Roissy Charles De Gaulle Airport Terminal One.

Lagardère Travel Retail has announced the roll-out of WeChat Pay, a solution for Chinese customers at its European shops for Chinese New Year.

WeChat pay will be launched in Roissy Charles De Gaulle Airport Terminal One at shops operated by Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire (SDA), the joint-venture between Lagardère Travel Retail and Groupe ADP–prior to being released at other airports.

WeChat Pay is a secure payment system for smartphones that is widely used in China and boasts 600 million active users. WeChat Pay is integrated in Tencent’s WeChat app, a popular ‘smart’ social network in China with nearly a billion users. Over 70% of transactions in China are conducted via mobile phones. Users make payments with a QR code generated on their smartphones.

CHINESE EXPANSION

Lagardère Travel Retail’s launch of WeChat Pay is part of its strategy to expand its Chinese clientèle, who currently account for a large portion of sales in international airports. The app is the latest addition to the strategy, which already includes a custom offering for Chinese customers, recruitment of Chinese sales advisers and partnerships with Chinese tour operators.

The retailer said: “Additionally, Lagardère Travel Retail endeavours to make the airport shopping experience as pleasant as possible by developing new airport services that enable passengers to save time and travel more comfortably.

“Further services have been created such as ‘click and collect’, enabling passengers to order products online and pick them up in-store at the airport and ‘collect on return’, which lets them pick up purchases at Lagardère Travel Retail duty free shops when they return from their trip.”

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