Alibaba to Help Chinese Consumers Buy from US Retailers

Philliou Selwanes Partners (PSP) announced it has entered into an agreement with Chinese firm Alibaba to promote its online-payment service Alipay in North America. PSP is a New York consulting and advisory firm focused on the financial services industry, developing new products and payment-related strategies for banks, payment networks, insurance companies and retailers worldwide.

PSP will work with the online merchants and merchant-acquirers to integrate Alipay into their payment mix alongside other payment offerings. The company pointed to research conducted by UPS that showed demand among Chinese consumers for US merchandise (http://pressroom.ups.com/chinasurvey/index.html).

PSP partner Philip J. Philliou said, "As China has undergone a meteoric economic expansion, the opportunities for U.S. retailers have been limited by our differing payment systems. This alliance agreement removes those barriers and opens up great new potential for North American merchants to add millions of dollars in new sales volume from an untapped marketplace."

Alipay is a subsidiary of eBay-competitor Alibaba, the leading Chinese auction marketplace. eBay has had difficulty gaining traction in Asia and recently announced a deal with Yahoo Japan to help Japanese consumers purchase items from eBay.com using eBay's PayPal payment service (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y207/m12/abu0205/s04).