Global support for Chinese payment methods

Stripe expands Chinese payment support to UK and EU

Stripe now offers China UnionPay in the UK and the European Union, extending coverage for the payment method to merchants across North America, Europe, and most of Asia. Combined with existing Alipay and WeChat Pay integrations, businesses on the platform can now accept the three most popular payment methods among Chinese online shoppers, which together account for 85% of ecommerce purchases by Chinese consumers.

Chinese cross-border ecommerce spending reached nearly $100 billion in 2020, a 31% increase over the prior year. The addressable market extends beyond mainland China: more than 60 million people in the global Chinese diaspora — living, working, or studying overseas — are also potential customers.

UnionPay, operating its global network through UnionPay International, is the world's largest card network with close to 9 billion cards in circulation. When paired with the more than 2 billion wallet users across Alipay and WeChat Pay, Stripe merchants now have a straightforward path to serving the majority of the Chinese ecommerce market using familiar payment methods.

Data from Stripe's own user base indicates that adding Alipay and WeChat Pay alone has doubled revenue from Chinese buyers for many businesses. Public examples include Humble Bundle, a games and digital content marketplace, which attributed part of its 600% sales growth from China to offering these local payment options at checkout. EASI, an Asian food delivery platform in Australia, quickly extended its reach to Chinese customers in Japan, Canada, the UK, and the US by adding Alipay and WeChat Pay to its Stripe integration.

Merchants can enable UnionPay alongside the other Chinese payment methods by updating a single line of code in Stripe Checkout, or adding a few lines in other Stripe integrations. Payment methods are managed through the Stripe Dashboard, where businesses can see which options are available in their region. Full documentation on supported methods is available on the Stripe payment methods overview.