MOSCOW, May 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- UnionPay International (UPI) announced today that Ozon, Russia's largest e-commerce platform, has enabled UnionPay online payment, offering convenient services to 3.3 million cardholders in the country. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the demand for online shopping, takeaway, utility payment and other pay-from-home options has been growing even higher among homegrown residents and Chinese communities living in overseas markets. As a result, the online transaction volume generated by UnionPay cards issued outside Mainland China has been constantly rising. The local transaction volume for use cases such as lifestyle, transport, and F&B grew over 200% in the first quarter.
So far, UnionPay cards are supported by nearly 22 million overseas online merchants in more than 200 countries and regions. Since 2021, over 3,000 new online merchants outside Mainland China have enabled UnionPay acceptance, from well-known e-retailers such as Neiman Marcus, MAC Cosmetics, MATCHESFASHION, Theory, Net-A-Porter Hong Kong, and Moncler, to Origin, a digital entertainment platform, Orlando Disney and Jegotrip in the tourism sector, PayZoom, a South Korean tuition payment platform, and takeaway platforms like foodpanda HK and OpenRice.
With the penetration of digital payment products, UPI rolls out new features such as In-App payment and cross-screen QR code in addition to webpage-based payment services, expanding the service scope of online payment to all UnionPay-powered e-wallets. Recently, BPAY, the largest bill payment platform in Australia, and HBLPay, one of the largest e-wallets in Pakistan, have started to accept UnionPay's online payments. Octopus in Hong Kong and Suica in Japan have enabled card top-up through mobile wallets for UnionPay cardholders.
Other online payment services UPI offers include installment and "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) plans. So far, UnionPay cardholders can pay in installments at around 30,000 merchants such as cross-border e-retailers, academic institutions and airlines. They can also enjoy interest-free payment by enrolling their UnionPay cards on renowned BNPL platforms or apps. The UnionPay PaybyLink service helps merchants outside the Chinese mainland to collect payments from UnionPay cardholders via SMS, e-mail and other vehicles, which means they can sell products even without an online store. This offering has attracted a large number of small and micro merchants in Hong Kong, Europe, Canada, Southeast Asia and many other places.
