Singapore, 23 October 2018 — Dairy Farm Singapore Group (DFSG), Singapore’s largest retail group, and NETS, Singapore’s largest payments network, are working together with China’s e-payment giant WeChat to bring WeChat Pay to retail outlets in Singapore, starting with 7-Eleven and Guardian.
From 1 November 2018, WeChat Pay users, including visitors from China and China nationals based in Singapore, can enjoy the convenience of using WeChat Pay at any of the over 600 Cold Storage, Giant, 7-Eleven and Guardian stores island-wide. The service is currently piloted at the 7-Eleven and Guardian stores at Changi International Airport and key tourist destinations in the Orchard and Chinatown districts.
According to the Singapore Tourism Board, visitors from China increased by almost 13%, from 2.8 million in 2016 to 3.2 million in 2017i ii. The partnership between Dairy Farm Singapore and NETS together with WeChat will enable Singapore’s largest multi-format retailer to better cater to the growing number of China visitors, by offering visitors a convenient way to pay when they shop in Singapore.
NETS Head of Merchant Services, Mr Alvin Seck said, “Working with payment partners like WeChat and retailers like Dairy Farm Group enables NETS to roll out new payment services for consumers quickly while minimising adoption costs for merchants. With this partnership, 7-Eleven and Guardian along with Cold Storage and Giant can just make use of its existing NETS uPOS terminals to accept WeChat Pay, in addition to NETS, QR, NETS FlashPay, credit and debit payments.”
To use WeChat Pay for payments, users simply need to scan the NETS QR code on the NETS uPOS terminal.
Dairy Farm Singapore’s Regional Finance Director, Tom van der Lee agreed, adding that this latest payment mode service is part of the multi-format retailer’s digital transformation journey in line with the government’s ‘Smart Nation’ drive. “More customers are adopting cashless payments, thanks to easier and faster payment transactions with the uPOS terminal plus the convenience of the wide array of payment options to choose from across our Cold Storage, Giant, 7-Eleven2 and Guardian stores. Cold Storage alone has seen cashless payment increase by 6% and at Guardian by 3% since Dairy Farm Singapore installed 1,800 unified NETS POS terminals in 2017 – single largest deployment by retailer here.