Chinese internet and e-commerce giant Alibaba and its subsidiary Alipay signed a memorandum of understanding with Commonwealth Bank of Australia to make payments easier for Australian and Chinese tourists.
With the new partnership, Australian customers of the bank will find it easier to pay on AliExpress. This ease of access could increase Australian shopping online and on-site.
Chinese tourists will be able to pay via Alipay using the Australian bank's point-of-sale systems and easily transact with merchants with Alipay.
There are 19,000 Chinese tourists per week in Australia that spend roughly $8,000 per person. The partnership between the two financial entities is expected to bring bigger sales and a wider consumer base.
The partnership will affect 450 million Chinese users. In the next decade, the growth target is 2 billion users worldwide in the next decade.
Other mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay must also remain competitive as Chinese consumers are expected to increase customer loyalty.
Alipay and Alibaba's financial arm Ant Financial formed partnerships with big companies like Uber to make transactions on travel easier.
Globally, Alipay has more than 450 million daily users. There are 380 million payments done every day.
Australia is the fifth largest market for the Chinese company. A big bulk of sales came from the country during Singles' Day, Alibaba's biggest online event.
Singles' Day is also considered the biggest online sales event in the world.
Alibaba recently announced that the company will be establishing its Australian headquarters in Melbourne. The country is also the first to embrace cashless online transactions.
ANZ was the first Australian bank that made Android Pay available and the only bank that transacts Apple Pay.