WeChat, Alipay offer overseas tax refund services to tourists, meaning no more airport queues
China’s two largest mobile payment platforms look to simplify and make it more convenient for Chinese travellers get tax rebates on purchases made in overseas trips
The tedious tax refund process at airports and the long wait to get rebates for purchases made on overseas trips may soon be a thing of the past for Chinese tourists.
WeChat Pay and Alipay, China’s two biggest mobile payment platforms, have recently forged partnerships with tax refund companies to enable Chinese tourists to obtain rebates on their purchases via their respective mobile apps.
Within this year, WeChat also plans to offer instant refunds in-store overseas as it competes for a larger share of rising Chinese tourist spending abroad.
Their strategy is driven by how China has embraced mobile payments faster than any other country and is also the biggest source of outbound travellers. In 2016, mobile payment transactions in China reached US$5.5 trillion, making the country the largest mobile payments market in the world, according to iResearch.
Both WeChat Pay and Alipay have been expanding their services as mobile payments are used for everything from food delivery, taxi rides and in-store purchases, both on the mainland and abroad.