Dairy Farm and NETS to enable Chinese e-payment service WeChat Pay

The service will be available from 1 November at 7-Eleven, Guardian, Cold Storage and Giant.

Local retailer Dairy Farm Singapore has partnered with payments network NETS to bring Chinese e-payment service WeChat Pay to retail outlets in Singapore, an announcement revealed.

Chinese tourists and nationals based in Singapore can use the payment service from 1 November at any of the 600 Cold Storage, Guardian, 7-Eleven and Giant stores island-wide.

“Working with payment partners like WeChat and retailers like Dairy Farm Group enables NETS to roll out new payment services for consumers quickly whilst minimising adoption costs for merchants,” NETS head of merchant services Alvin Seck said.

7-Eleven and Guardian along with Cold Storage and Giant will make use of its existing NETS uPOS terminals to accept WeChat Pay by scanning a NETS QR code, in addition to NETS, QR, NETS FlashPay, credit and debit payments.

WeChat Pay will determine the foreign exchange charge at the point-of-sale, and users will be shown the charges in Chinese yuan.

Visitors from China increased almost 13% to 3.2m in 2017 from 2.8m in 2016 according to the Singapore Tourism Board.

The payment service is currently piloted at the 7-Eleven and Guardian branches in Changi International Airport as well as tourist destinations in the Orchard and Chinatown districts.