Ingenico is to provide a beachhead to European merchants for Chinese powerhouse Alipay, embedding the popular mobile app into its instore payments gateway.
Alipay claims bragging rights to world-leading payment platform status, with 450 million active users run by Alibaba offshoot Ant Financial Services Group.
Under the deal with Ingenico, Chinese tourists visiting Europe will be able to conveniently pay via their Alipay App at any store that uses the Ingenico merchant terminals.
The Ingenico payment gateway processed more than 3.5 billion transactions in 2015, while China's 10 million visitors to Europe in 2014 represented a total purchasing power of $21 billion.