Alipay debuts initiatives to help businesses in China as lockdowns end

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Ant Financial's digital payment platform is adding a number of services to help small businesses in the city of Wuhan as its lockdown ends, per a press release.

It's adding a section to its app to highlight products and services and enable ordering from merchants in Wuhan. Some merchants in the city that are on the platform can also apply for loans with no interest rate for the first month.

Additionally, Alipay is offering free training courses for employees like cashiers and store managers to teach them how to best use Alipay's platform, and it's incentivizing service providers to create digital solutions to help merchants operate. Ant Financial plans to expand these initiatives throughout China in the future.

Such efforts could help Chinese businesses begin to recover from the lockdown and allow Alipay to grow its business beyond payments and financial services.

China's retail sales plummeted this year due to the pandemic, and initiatives like these could help some merchants get back on their feet. The country's retail sales of consumer goods were down 20.5% year-over-year (YoY) for January and February 2020, per Xinhua.

This drop is in part due to the coronavirus pandemic, which forced consumers to stay home and may have lessened consumers' interest in spending. Prominent placement on Alipay's app, loans, and new digital solutions could help some merchants improve their performances as lockdowns end and at least partially recover from losing business for an extended period.

By helping merchants and service providers recover, Alipay can potentially build toward its aim of becoming a digital lifestyle platform. Ant Financial announced its plans to help service providers digitally transform and create a platform that includes services beyond payments and finance, like healthcare and food delivery, in March.

This would broaden Alipay's appeal to consumers, and helping businesses in the wake of the pandemic could see Alipay build out its selection of services since more providers and merchants may join its platform in an effort to improve their performances.

Payments and commerce platforms in other markets should keep an eye on Alipay's efforts to help develop their own initiatives once the pandemic subsides. Platforms that can connect businesses with consumers, like marketplaces and digital payment platforms, may also be able to help businesses recover and attract more consumers and providers when other markets lift lockdowns.

They should see if any of Alipay's initiatives prove particularly effective in drawing sales for businesses and recruiting users and companies to their platforms, and try to incorporate them into their own strategies.

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