Heinemann first Tyro merchant to integrate Alipay in Australian banking first

Tyro and Alipay integration live in new Gold Coast Heinemann stores

Sydney, Australia, 31 October 2018 – Australia’s business-only bank Tyro, announced it has gone live with its first merchant implementing Alipay today, in an Australian banking first. Tax and duty-free retailer Heinemann Australia has today introduced Alipay in its new stores at Gold Coast International Airport.

Tyro is the first and only Australian bank to offer a seamless, all-in-one EFTPOS solution with Alipay for its merchants. This follows Tyro signing a deal with Alipay in August 2018.

The integration with Alipay, the world’s largest mobile and online payment platform, provides Australian businesses improved access to the lucrative and rapidly expanding Chinese visitor market. In the year ending February 2018, almost 1.4 million Chinese tourists visited Australia, injecting AU$10.4 billion into the economy (in the year ending December 2017)^[1]. This is predicted to rise to AU$13 billion by 2020.^[2]

Tyro CEO Robbie Cooke said the Alipay integration continues the company’s strategy of enabling its merchants to accept all payment types and letting customers choose the way they want to pay.

“Bringing innovative payment and banking solutions to Australian businesses is what Tyro is all about and our partnership with Alipay allows us to offer Tyro merchants a market-leading initiative with a unique point of difference.

“We are thrilled to have Heinemann Australia on board as our first merchant taking advantage of Tyro’s Alipay integration and proud to be the first bank in the country to bring this exciting initiative to Australian businesses.

“This is all the more impressive given it was only at the end of August that we signed our deal with Alipay” said Cooke.

Australian businesses looking to capitalise on the Chinese tourist market can now offer a simple and seamless payment option to visitors, helping to make their local experience more familiar with how they transact at home. Thousands of Chinese students and migrants also use Alipay and merchants, particularly across the retail and hospitality sectors, also have the opportunity to offer a range of payment options giving customers more choice in how they want to pay.

Richard Goodman, Managing Director of Heinemann Australia, said, “We are excited to partner with Tyro in launching Alipay. We know Alipay is not only the preferred payment method by many of our valued Chinese customers, it also offers increased convenience, with the trend toward cashless digital wallets. We look forward to rolling it out across our Australian stores.”

Operated by Alibaba Group’s affiliate Ant Financial, Alipay is the world’s leading mobile and online payment platform and is a must-have app in China. With over 870 million active users in China and overseas with its strategic partners, Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler and is the number one payment method in China.

George Lawson, ANZ Country Manager at Alipay, said, “For many Chinese visitors, Heinemann is the first brand encountered on arrival in Australia. Alipay is delighted to see the deployment of Alipay at Heinemann’s Gold Coast stores in partnership with Tyro, the first Australian bank to offer China’s leading payment method to merchants in Australia.”

Tyro will offer Alipay to its other eligible 20,000+ businesses from second quarter 2019.

Data from Nielsen has indicated that 65% of Chinese tourists use mobile payment platforms during their overseas travels, six times more than non-Chinese tourists (11%). In addition, over 90% of Chinese tourists would consider using Alipay when travelling abroad if Alipay were more widely accepted among foreign merchants. Moreover, over 90% of Chinese tourists indicated they would increase their spending if Alipay were an accepted payment method.

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 the only 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.

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.

For more information, visit tyro.com.

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 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 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.

^[1] https://trademinister.gov.au/releases/Pages/2018/sc_mr_180418.aspx
^[2] http://www.tourism.australia.com/content/dam/assets/document/1/6/x/g/p/2002921.pdf

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