How to accept Alipay payments: The definitive guide

Key takeaways

• Alipay is the dominant payment method in China and many nations across Asia. If you want to scale your business there, your store needs to accept Alipay payments.

• Accepting Alipay is one thing, but selling to China-based customers means you also need to plan for processing, holding, and exchanging Chinese yuan renminbi (CNY).

• Airwallex provides a payment gateway that can process Alipay payments (and 160+ others), as well as CNY currency accounts. You can set up China-friendly financial infrastructure from your UK base.

If you picture a room of 25 of your customers from around the world, (at least) two of them will use Alipay as their default option when buying in-person and online. 

If you’re planning on growing in APAC (and China, especially), the number of people using Alipay is more like 23 out of 25. A payment method this popular deserves your attention.

In this article, we’re going to explain how you can start accepting Alipay payments from customers around the world. We’ll cover the nuts and bolts of getting it set up, the benefits of doing so, and some common challenges you can avoid in advance.

Ways to accept Alipay payments

How you accept Alipay payments relates to how you accept payments in general. The short answer is that you’ll need a third-party payment gateway that includes Alipay acceptance. From there, you’ve got multiple options.

Most payment processors, including Airwallex, offer you options including:

• Payment plugins

• Hosted checkouts

• Mobile SDK and API

• Embedded checkouts

• Payment links, QR codes, and invoice embeds

It is possible to arrange a direct integration with Alipay, but this involves a lot more administrative and compliance work. It’s a huge undertaking and not feasible (or sensible) for most businesses. The great thing about using a neutral, third-party payment processor is that they’ve done all the setup work for you. You sign-up, complete the necessary checks, and start selling.

How accepting Alipay payments works

The process of accepting an Alipay payment with a third-party processor is much the same as with any other digital wallet.

1. Your customer chooses Alipay as their payment method at your checkout.

2. Your gateway securely sends your customer’s information to the payment processor.

3. The payment processor sends an authorisation request to the card network, which routes it to the issuing bank.

4. The issuing bank verifies the customer’s identity and checks they can afford the transaction. They inform the card network of their decision, who then informs the payment processor.

5. You get updated by your payment gateway and the funds are moved to your account (minus any fees).

There are some nuances to when you can access your funds, depending on the settlement and payout schedules of your payment processor and merchant account provider.

Using Airwallex to accept Alipay payments

Want to combine Alipay payments with powerful financial infrastructure to scale your business? You need to explore Airwallex.

We can help you take payments from Alipay, WeChat Pay, and UnionPay – three of the most popular payment methods in China.¹ You can accept over 160 payment methods in 130 currencies with Airwallex.

The setup is as simple as adding Alipay as an accepted payment method in your Airwallex account and passing the identity and fraud checks. We also offer integrated features like customs declarations for sales to mainland China via bonded warehouses.

Airwallex can do much more for your business beyond Alipay acceptance. Use Airwallex to power your entire financial world, from expense management to embedding financial products in your own platform. Our Global Accounts are the bedrock of it all, which you can use to hold dozens of currencies (including CYN) and exchange them at mid-market rates on your terms.

What is Alipay and who uses it?

Alipay is China’s most popular payment method, owned by eCommerce giant Alibaba. A digital wallet, much like Apple Pay or Google Wallet, Alipay connects a user’s card details to a mobile interface.

Digital payments are the go-to in China and the wider APAC region, especially compared to the USA and Europe’s preference for physical card payments. Alipay has 704 million monthly active users (nearly 10% of the world’s population) ² and a 2023 survey showed that 92% of Chinese citizens had used it in the past 12 months.¹ It might be easier to ask: Who doesn’t use Alipay?

What UK businesses need to accept Alipay

If you want to accept Alipay payments, you’ll need to start with a few basics:

1. Choose a payment processor that supports Alipay as a payment method and open an account with them. This includes passing their Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering checks.

2. Complete your payment processor’s onboarding and integrate it with your existing systems (e.g. eCommerce backend, website, invoicing and accounting software).

3. If they offer it, configure a local currency account(s) for like-for-like settlement in CNY.

4. Double-check your security, compliance, and anti–fraud measures are all in place and working for Alipay payments.

Superficially, all you need is a payment processor that supports Alipay. Once you look with more detail, you’ll see you also need up-to-date company and director records, a tech stack that can accommodate a new payment processor, and regular security and fraud checks.

Why accepting Alipay payments matters for businesses

Adding Alipay to your checkout is a strategic move that gets smarter the longer you consider it.

The most obvious use case is if you’re looking to expand into the Chinese or wider APAC markets. Giving those customers their default (and preferred) payment method will help you convert more sales. The same is true for the Chinese diaspora – Alipay is a familiar and trusted payment method for your customers worldwide.

Alipay Plus – the company’s cross-border payments solution – tripled its transaction volumes in 2024.³ This platform lets Chinese nationals pay with Alipay outside of their home country, driving a growing demand for Alipay acceptance in foreign markets.

If your overseas suppliers and contractors are in China, paying them with Alipay is another positive signal for your relationship, while also reducing fees and friction.

In short: Alipay is hugely popular and only becoming more so. Even if you aren’t trying to sell into China and APAC, the popularity of Alipay and our globalised population means you’ll almost certainly have customers who are hoping to pay using it.

Common challenges when accepting Alipay

You’ll face your own unique challenges and opportunities, but some are more likely to crop up than others. Common issues we find businesses have when adding Alipay as a payment method include:

• Offering Alipay at checkout is great, but it isn’t a guarantee that you’ll make a sale. The fundamentals – like pricing, product-market fit, and customer experience – are still critical.

• You need to be clear about the costs involved for your business – from payment method fees (e.g. you pay 2.00% + 0.20 GBP with Airwallex)⁴ to currency conversion for settlement.

• Cross-border payments include more legal and compliance risks. Your payment gateway should provide the information and assurances you need to manage these, but you need to be aware of and actively monitoring them.

• Adding a new payment method can be straightforward, but if you’re also onboarding a new gateway, creating new currency accounts, and managing dynamic currencies, the technical demands can increase quickly. You need to know you have the resources to manage these efforts.

Most of these challenges are mitigated or solved by choosing a reliable gateway provider, especially one with strong experience in helping businesses grow with cross-border payments.

Accept Alipay payments, grow further

Accepting Alipay sends a positive signal to many potential and existing customers. It’s one of the world’s most-used payment methods and humans can be fickle – we know what we like and we like what we know. A lot of people default to Alipay, so accepting it makes a sale that bit more likely.

By far the easiest way to accept Alipay is with a third party payment processor like Airwallex. It’s quicker, simpler, and easier to maintain than a direct integration with Ant Group (Alipay’s owner).

The benefits far outweigh the costs and risks, most of which are fairly low stakes anyway. Any business that adds Alipay to its checkout should see good uptake, but it’s essential if you’re trying to grow in China and APAC.

FAQs

Can UK businesses accept Alipay payments?

It’s possible for a UK business to accept Alipay payments, but they’ll need to use a third-party payment processor that supports Alipay. Companies like Airwallex, Stripe, and Adyen (and others) can do this.

Do I need a Chinese entity or bank account to accept Alipay?

It’s not essential, but some businesses choose to anyway. If you use a third party payment processor (like Airwallex), your customers can pay with Alipay and you can settle the funds in your UK account (minus any fees)

Is Alipay only useful for businesses selling to China?

Accepting Alipay payments is valuable for lots of reasons other than selling to China. The Chinese population is spread across the world, so you have potential customers everywhere who would love to buy using Alipay. More to the point, Alipay is used in other APAC nations beyond China.

How long does it take to start accepting Alipay?

Accepting Alipay can take anything from one day to a few weeks, depending on your industry, scale, directors, and other factors. You’ll need to toggle Alipay on in your payment gateway account and complete any Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering, and compliance checks required. The process will be longer if you need to sign up to a new gateway.

What’s the difference between accepting Alipay directly and via a payment provider?

To accept Alipay payments directly, your business needs to have a registered entity in China and a local currency accountant. You’ll likely pay lower fees, but the administrative and compliance burden is much higher. On the other hand, using a payment provider is far simpler as they have an established relationship with Ant Group (Alipay’s owner). You might pay a little more, but it’s much, much easier.

Sources and references

1. https://www.statista.com/chart/17409/most-popular-digital-payment-services-in-china/

2. https://www.statista.com/topics/12196/alipay/#topicOverview

3. https://www.alipayplus.com/news/detail/alipayplus-transactions-triple-in-2024

4. https://www.airwallex.com/uk/online-payments-capability