In an alleyway in London’s Camden Market, a woman in ripped black jeans and fingerless gloves fiddles with an iPad screen. Like most shopkeepers in this area, Emma Peonia usually sells clothes to tattooed youngsters paying with debit cards or cash but, for the first time, she is using a Chinese payments app to sell an Iron Maiden T-shirt.
“My boss thought it would be useful — she has just created a new website,” she says. “She wants to sell more to Chinese tourists.”
WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app owned by technology group Tencent, launched its payment service, WeChat Pay, in the UK on Wednesday. It is hoping that more shops like Ms Peonia’s will use it to target Chinese consumers, who last year spent £513m in the UK, according to Visit Britain, the tourism body.