There are two different Alipay payment gateway plugins:-
- The Conventional Alipay Payment Gateway plugin – for use by websites INSIDE Mainland China
- The Alipay Cross-Border Payment Gateway plugin – for use by websites OUTSIDE Mainland China. Click here to buy now from the official site WooCommerce.com
More specifically, these two plugins (and the differences between them,) are:-
The Conventional Alipay Payment Gateway
This is for use by eCommerce websites inside Mainland China. These websites will typically:-
- Be in the Chinese language,
- Have prices and Renminbi/Yuan (the Chinese currency), and;
- Be owned/operated by someone with a Chinese bank account.
Thus, the website’s customers make payments in Renminbi/Yuan, which payments are deposited directly into the website’s internal Chinese bank account.
The Alipay Cross-Border Payment Gateway
Buy now
This is for use by eCommerce websites outside Mainland China (who want to sell to individuals and businesses inside Mainland China). These websites will typically:-
- Be in some language other than Chinese,
- Have prices in some currency other than Renminbi/Yuan (the Chinese currency),
- Be owned/operated by someone without a Mainland China bank account,
So in this case, while the website’s customers will pay in Renminbi/Yuan, these payments will then be converted in whatever currency the website’s overseas (= outside Mainland China) bank account is in – before being deposited into that bank account.
Thus with Alipay Cross-Border:-
- You can sell into the lucrative Chinese market
- Your Chinese customers will pay in the currency they are familiar with (and have no currency exchange issues to worry about), and;
- You, the website/merchant, also have no currency exchange issues to worry about. Payments are deposited into your bank account outside Mainland China, in whatever currency that bank account is in.
