EUROPE. Lagardère Travel Retail has enabled cashless payment solutions WeChat Pay and Alipay for its stores at airports in Italy and Poland.
In partnership with Natixis Payment, the company said that it had accelerated the implementation of the fast-growing Chinese payment methods in these countries in time for the busy Chinese New Year period.
The new airports offering WeChat Pay and Alipay are Rome Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino, Warsaw Chopin, Kraków John Paul II International and Gdansk Lech Walesa.
Already implemented in France at Paris Charles de Gaulle and Nice Côte d’Azur airports, this initiative is a central part of Lagardère Travel Retail’s Asian client growth strategy.
Lagardère Travel Retail is the first company in Poland – which welcomed a record 130,000 Chinese vistitors in 2018 – to introduce mobile payments using WeChat Pay and Alipay.
Of the Chinese cashless payment implementation, Lagardère Travel Retail IT Director Paweł Opałko said: “The dynamics with which the number of clients using these applications is growing proves that mobile payments are the future.
“Airports are a place where everyone is in a hurry, no one wants to stand in queues, stressed that he will miss the plane. Every saved second which is not lost looking for a wallet is worth a lot. Contactless payment or a telephone application significantly improves this process both from the point of view of the client and the store.”
At Rome Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport – which bills itself as the European hub with the most connections to and from China – all of Lagardère Travel Retail’s brands have implemented facilities to accept WeChat Pay and Alipay. These include Aelia Duty Free, Relay, Montblanc, Pandora, Sunglass Hut, Ermenegildo Zegna, Lacoste, Superdry, The Fashion Place and Michael Kors. In addition, the Lagardère-operated restaurant, Ajisen Ramen, has also joined the programme.
Rome Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino Airport Chief Commercial Officer Fausto Palombelli said: “With the activation of WeChat Pay at Fiumicino Airport, the first in Italy and one of the few in Europe to do so, Aeroporti di Roma intends to consolidate its leading position in terms of customer experience for Chinese passengers.”
Emphasising the importance of the new payment system, Lagardère Travel Retail Italia CEO Lucio Rossetto said: “The primary and distinctive role of Lagardère Travel Retail is to build an offer tailored to the specific needs of the airport in which we operate in order to ensure the best service and the broadest purchase options.
“As of today, Chinese passengers at Fiumicino will be able to pay using the method that best suits them, be it a lunch at our Chinese restaurant, Ajisen Ramen, a fashion accessory or a duty free gift.”
