9 January 2019

Heinemann Sydney Airport stores now offering Alipay through Tyro

Tyro first Australian bank to integrate Alipay in Australia, available at Heinemann Sydney Airport

Sydney, Australia, 9 January 2019 – Australia’s business-only bank Tyro, announced its next Alipay integration with Sydney Airport tax and duty-free retailer Heinemann Australia, where the payment system is now live. Tyro is the first Australian bank to offer Alipay to its merchants with Heinemann Gold Coast International Airport going live last month, following the deal signed with Alipay in August 2018.

With 900 million users choosing to pay for goods and services globally via Alipay and its strategic partners, it has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler and is the number one payment method in China. Through its partnership with Alipay, Tyro is now helping Australian businesses access the ever-expanding Chinese visitor market and empowering Australian retailers to better serve Chinese tourists by offering customers more payment options.

Tyro’s CEO, Robbie Cooke, said Alipay is a compelling payment solution option for Australian merchants looking to expand their customer base by accessing the lucrative Chinese visitor market.

“Heinemann Australia is a key player in travel retail and a popular shopping destination for Chinese visitors travelling through Sydney Airport. For our Chinese guests, Alipay is a familiar and preferred payment method, especially while travelling. Tyro is proud to have partnered with Heinemann to bring Alipay to the Australian market. Tyro has a long-standing and successful working relationship with Heinemann with a common goal of bringing new payment technology to market and putting the customer first.”

Richard Goodman, Managing Director of Heinemann Australia, said, “We are excited to partner with Tyro yet again in launching Alipay in our Sydney stores, better reaching our Chinese customers. We look forward to introducing exclusive offers over the Chinese New Year period to Alipay users in partnership with Sydney Airport”.

George Lawson, ANZ Country Manager at Alipay, said, “Australian retailers like Heinemann are recognising the huge opportunity presented by the Chinese visitor boom, particularly in airports which are the gateways to our nation. In fact, Australian airports were the third-most popular airport shopping destinations globally during the recent Chinese Golden Week holiday, and by offering Chinese tourists their preferred payment method – Alipay, Heinemann is well placed to harness this key market.”

For the year ending October 2018, there were over 1.4 million Chinese visitor arrivals in Australia1. Chinese visitors injected AU$10.4 billion into the economy in the year ending December 20172. This is predicted to rise to AU$13 billion by 20203.

According to Tourism Research Australia’s Dispersal of Chinese Free and Independent Leisure Visitors in Australia 2015 report4, Sydney is the most prominent arrival gateway with 45% of Chinese free and independent travellers (FITs) landing in the capital city.

Glyn Williams, General Manager Retail at Sydney Airport, said, “We’re proud to offer a highly tailored experience for Chinese passengers at Sydney Airport including retail, food and dining options, targeted content through WeChat and Chinese wayfinding via eDirectories and Baidu maps. Bolstering Chinese payment options at Sydney Airport is another important step in delivering a superior customer experience for Chinese travellers.”

Tyro will offer Alipay to its other eligible 20,000+ businesses within the first half of 2019 so Australian businesses looking to capitalise on the Chinese tourist market will soon be able to offer a simple and seamless payment option to Chinese visitors, helping to make their local experience more familiar and in keeping with how they transact at home.

Thousands of Chinese students and migrants who use Alipay and merchants, particularly across the retail and hospitality sectors, also have the opportunity to engage with a range of payment options that provide more choice.

Data from Nielsen has indicated that:

65% of Chinese tourists use mobile payment platforms during overseas travels – six times more than non-Chinese tourists (11%);
Over 90% of Chinese tourists would consider using Alipay when travelling abroad if Alipay were more widely accepted among foreign merchants; and
Over 90% of Chinese tourists indicated they would increase their spending if Alipay were an accepted payment
method⁵

Tyro is further diversifying its offering and responding to merchant needs by introducing initiatives that will attract more revenue to its merchants’ businesses. The Alipay integration fits with Tyro’s strategy to offer alternative payments, as part of its existing award-winning EFTPOS and banking-specific products.

As an Australian bank completely dedicated to business banking, Tyro is at the forefront of banking and payments and strongly supports its customers by designing innovative products and a better experience, so they can succeed.

^{1 http://www.tourism.australia.com/en/markets-and-stats/tourism-statistics/international-visitor-arrivals.html}

^{2 https://trademinister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2018/sc_mr_180418.aspx}

^{3 http://www.tourism.australia.com/content/dam/assets/document/1/6/x/g/p/2002921.pdf}

⁴https://www.tra.gov.au/en/data-and-research

^{5
https://www.nielsen.com/cn/en/insights/reports/2018/nielsen-over-90-percent-chinese-tourists-would-use-mobile-paymentoverseas-given-the-option.html}

About Tyro

Tyro is an Australian Bank and operates under the supervision of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Tyro provides credit, debit and eftpos card acquiring, Medicare and private health fund claiming and rebating services, as well as an interest-bearing transaction and deposit account offering integration with Xero accounting software. Tyro takes money on deposit and offers unsecured cashflow-based lending to Tyro EFTPOS merchants. Tyro currently serves more than 20,000 businesses with its own in-house, cloud-based mobile core banking platform.

About Heinemann Australia Pty Ltd

Heinemann Australia with its 550 employees is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gebr. Heinemann and was established in 2014 to represent the group in the Trans-Tasman region, in conjunction with winning the Duty Free tender at prestigious Sydney Airport. Now boasting seven impressive stores, Heinemann Tax & Duty Free operates 10,000 sqm of retail space at this destination port. Rooted in Gebr. Heinemann’s legacy, Heinemann Australia is committed to being a key player in travel retail by becoming the preferred partner for landlords, operators and suppliers. Also, by maintaining our enduring commercial relationships and fostering mutual growth with their business partners. For more information, visit https://heinemann.com.au/.

About Alipay

Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world’s largest mobile and online payment platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently works with over 200 domestic financial institution partners. Over the years, Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments, Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China. Alipay’s in-store payment service covers over 40 countries and regions across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported in 29 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay currently supports 27 currencies.

About Sydney Airport

Sydney Airport is Australia’s gateway airport, serving more than 43.3 million passengers a year and connecting Sydney to a network of over 100 international, domestic and regional destinations. Located just eight kilometres from the city centre, Sydney Airport contributes $38 billion in economic activity a year, equivalent to 6.8 per cent of the NSW economy. Sydney Airport is a major employer in NSW, generating more than 338,500 direct and indirect jobs, equivalent to 10.1 per cent of NSW employment. 30,900 of these jobs are at the airport itself across 800 different businesses. Sydney Airport is committed to helping its local communities thrive, supporting the leaders of tomorrow, embracing and showcasing Sydney’s best, and partnering with a range of local community events, charities, festivals, clubs, councils and other organisations.

Need to know more?

For more about this news story please contact:
Monica Appleby, Head of Corporate Communications on 0466 598 946 or mappleby@tyro.com
Sophie Cotterill, Corporate Communications Manager on 0414 960 292 or scotterill@tyro.com