How to Accept WeChat Payments: Essential Tips for Expanding Your Market

Part of the World of Payments™ Series

A previous article in this series explored reasons to accept WeChat Pay, with one of the better justifications being the 10 to 20% chance that the next visitor to your eCommerce store will be a WeChat Pay user. In this article, we’ll explore how to accept WeChat Payments. For a few reasons, this is the time to know.

WeChat Use is Growing Quickly in North America.

WeChat already has four million users in the US, and that number is rising because many people, Chinese nationals and otherwise, are drawn to its “super-app” features. It’s like WhatsApp, Facebook, Apple Pay, Uber, Amazon and more, all in one app. 

As WeChat interest, trial and regular usage all continue to grow, getting out in front of it by adding WeChat Pay to your payment stack will give your customer the option to use their new (or old) favourite app to pay you. You’d be elevating the shopping experience for new WeChat Pay users, while demonstrating to legacy WeChat Pay users that you see them and welcome them.

How to Accept WeChat Payments

Like Alipay, the other major Chinese payment platform, WeChat Pay is based on QR codes:

• You assign a unique QR code to every product or service you offer.
  
  
• An in-person or online customer scans QR codes to get the price and pay, OR you scan their personal QR code at point of purchase to take money from them.

How to Maximize an Investment in WeChat Payments

A major WeChat benefit to both in-person and online retailers is the ease by which they can create their own online promotional and transactional platforms within the WeChat platform and not have to invest in third-party web or app development.

WeChat Mini-Programs

Mini-programs are apps created within the WeChat platform that live on the platform. This stands in contrast to the North American model of building stand-alone apps that users and employees can download through their app store of choice.

Mini-programs are generally not robust like apps. Most are designed to perform one action (i.e., booking tickets, checking stocks, ordering food, sharing cars, editing photos, etc.), but that’s what makes them easy to create and use.

As a retailer that accepts WeChat Pay, you can create multiple mini-programs for different aspects of your business, including for your employees and partners.

H5 Landing Pages for WeChat

WeChat H5 pages are easy-to-build landing pages in the WeChat app that are like mobile-optimized versions of your website, complete with animations, games, and multimedia — all of which are easy to integrate.

Combining elements of brand and conversion marketing, an H5 landing page is like an interactive brochure that WeChat users can share with others via WeChat’s social functionality. The interactivity could take the form of eCommerce, surveys, event registrations or any other action you may find on a traditional website.

The Best Feature Shared by H5 Landing Pages and Mini-Programs

Both have elite data capture capabilities that will help you optimize your efforts at every level of your sales funnel. And information is also available through the WeChat app.

The First Step to Getting All the Benefits of WeChat Pay

You need a system for creating and reading QR codes that can process WeChat payments.

Through OTT Pay’s World of Payments™ ecosystem, you can get the POS hardware, the eCommerce software and WeChat Pay capability.

As part of your OTT Pay setup, you’ll assign an account where the revenue from your WeChat transactions will land — most likely but not necessarily your business bank account. Once you’re set up, you can begin generating QR codes for your products and services using the OTT easy tools. These QR codes can live online and in-person, with no complicated tech required. You could even print them out and stick them on the wall.

What is WeChat Pay’s Fee Structure?

WeChat Pay’s fee structure is designed to encourage adoption of the app, and so far so good on that front.

• Your customers generally never pay fees, which makes the platform appealing to them.
  
  
• You’ll benefit from processing fees that are typically lower than credit cards.
  
  
• Funds are taken directly from your customer’s bank account (versus the way credit card fees are processed), so you won’t have to manage NSFs, chargebacks or disputes.
  
  
• Best of all, the funds you collect will be converted into your local currency and will appear in your account the next day.

3 Trends that will Further Drive WeChat Pay Adoptions in North America

As you think about how and where to expand your payment options this year, consider these stats:

• 1/8 people (12.5% of humanity) uses WeChat Pay, so accepting WeChat Pay will i most likely make that sizable chunk of the global population more amenable to shopping with you.
  
  
• 50% of customers consider ease of checkout when deciding where to shop. If your customers are either from China or use WeChat, accepting WeChat Pay will make it easier.
  
  
• US$33B in commerce will be done using QR codes by 2030.

Accepting a World of Payments™ includes WeChat Pay.

OTT Pay offers the whole nine yards and everything in between – from introducing our POS Terminal solution into your business, to integrating our World of Payments™ platform into your preexisting payment ecosystem. Not only are we able to accept WeChat Pay QR Code Payments, but other popular Chinese Mobile Payments — such as Alipay and UnionPay mobile — and traditional cards — such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Seamlessly integrate World of Payments into your retail space, online store, or both! And partnering with us doesn’t just stop at payments — OTT Pay is also able to provide your business a wide range of technologies and services that can help you promote your business to new markets, collect more payments on-the-go, and track the success of your efforts. Embrace diversity and offer a wider World of Payments with OTT Pay today.