Shoppers at Cold Storage, Giant, Guardian and 7-Eleven outlets will be able to pay for their purchases with their mobile phones via WeChat Pay from Nov 1.

Dairy Farm Singapore and Nets yesterday announced their tie-up with the Chinese e-payment giant to offer consumers the option of paying with its digital wallet service at more than 600 retail outlets of the four brands.

Visitors from China and Chinese nationals living in Singapore will also be able to utilise this payment option, Dairy Farm and Nets said in their joint statement.

The payment option is being piloted at the 7-Eleven and Guardian stores in Changi Airport, as well as in Orchard Road and Chinatown.

To use WeChat Pay, users should scan the Nets QR code on the Nets unified point-of-sale terminal.

Mr Alvin Seck, who heads merchant services at Nets, said the partnership between Nets, Dairy Farm and WeChat enables Nets to roll out new payment services for consumers quickly while minimising the adoption cost for merchants.

This is because retailers will be able to make use of their existing Nets unified point-of-sale terminals to accept WeChat Pay purchases, on top of Nets, QR, Nets FlashPay, credit and debit card payments.

Dairy Farm Singapore's regional finance director Tom van der Lee said more customers are opting for cashless payments.

For instance, Cold Storage has seen cashless payments increase by 6 per cent after 1,800 Nets unified point-of-sale terminals were installed last year.

Over at Guardian, cashless payments have gone up by 3 per cent, he said.

Dairy Farm Singapore and Nets also said WeChat Pay will better cater to the growing number of Chinese visitors and offer them a convenient way to pay while shopping in Singapore.

Singapore Tourism Board figures show visitors from China increased by almost 13 per cent, from 2.8 million in 2016 to 3.2 million last year.

Ng Huiwen