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Payments provider Citcon USA LLC said early Thursday it is unveiling plugins that will allow e-commerce platforms like Commerce Cloud, Magento, Salesforce, Shopify, WooCommerce, and others to offer merchants the ability to accept Alipay, WeChat Pay, and China UnionPay, as well as credit cards, without coding.
The development represents a major move by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Citcon into e-commerce and comes as online shopping has exploded in the wake of business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. Citing the Adobe Digital Economy Index, Citcon said U.S. consumer e-commerce volume reached $153 billion in April and May combined, 7% higher than the volume seen in November and December, the height of the holiday-shopping season. Citing the same source, the company said buy online, pick up in store volume in May was fully 195% higher than in May a year ago.
“Global e-commerce sales experienced a significant boost over the past few months and we expect the online shopping boom is here to stay, together with a profound transformation in the way consumers pay for purchases,” says Wei Jiang, Citcon’s president and chief operating officer, in a statement.
The company estimates its integration with the shopping platforms will bring access to more than 2 billion consumers in more than 110 countries. Its plugins, it says, will offer quicker checkouts and lower cart-abandonment rates. They will also allow consumers to pay in their local currency and merchants to settle in U.S. or Canadian dollars. Besides promising no coding, Citcon adds a single plugin will “support all major and incoming new payment methods.”
Five-year-old Citcon has based its business model on installing point-of-sale gear that can allow North American merchants to accept popular China-based mobile wallets as tourism from China grows. One of its most recent installations involved working with app developer Tulip Retail Inc. to allow store clerks to use their mobile apps to help customers check out.
Now its pivot to e-commerce comes as shopping platforms look for ways to expand their acceptance methods. Alternative payment methods “are shaping the future of e-commerce,” says Chuck Huang, Citcon’s founder and chief executive, in a statement. “With universal use of mobile devices, adoption of mobile-payment solutions is increasing worldwide and driving growth in non-cash transactions. In addition, with social distancing and more people staying and working from home, customers rely on ordering online more than ever.”
