Wirecard to partner with leading global retailer WHSmith for digital payments

Aschheim (Munich) (ots) -

- WHSmith is a leading global retailer in news, books, travel
accessories and convenience
- WHSmith has a significant presence in the UK in airports,
hospitals, train stations and on most high streets, and the Group has
a growing international business with over 400 stores in 99 airports
worldwide

Wirecard, the global innovation leader for digital financial
technology, is collaborating with WHSmith, a leading global retailer
in news, books and convenience for the world's travelling customer.
The two companies are working together to expand WHSmith's digital
payment acceptance capabilities for e-commerce as well as at the POS,
thus furthering the retailer's digital journey.

With over 1,600 stores across the world in airports, hospitals,
train stations and highway service areas, as well as on most UK high
streets, WHSmith is a globally recognized brand for the world's
travelling customer. The company also has a flourishing e-commerce
business which includes click & collect and "Buy Online Return in
Store" (BORIS) options for a flexible customer experience. Thanks to
the collaboration with Wirecard, WHSmith is further improving its
service to consumers both nationally and internationally by enabling
smooth and flexible payment acceptance and processing.

"We are happy to collaborate with WHSmith to process their digital
payments," commented Fredrik Neumann, VP Sales Retail at Wirecard.
"Through this cooperation with yet another major retailer, we are
proving our ability to understand the needs of internationally-facing
merchants and the retail sector as a whole, as well as significantly
expanding our footprint in the UK market. We look forward to a
successful cooperation with WHSmith."

"We aim to deliver the best service to our customers, and that
includes providing convenient and easy payment methods both online
and in-store," added Ian Sanders, Group Commercial Development
Director at WHSmith. "We are pleased to be working with Wirecard who
have offered a tailor-made solution to our business and deliver the
latest payment acceptance solutions. We are excited to offer our
customers an even more flexible checkout experience across our
WHSmith stores and e-commerce shop."

As a first step, over 900 UK stores will be equipped with China
payment methods. The integration benefits Chinese customers, who can
now pay in WHSmith stores as if they were in their home country,
without having to exchange money or carry cash. By giving Chinese
customers the opportunity to use their local payment methods, WHSmith
will become an even more attractive shopping destination for Chinese
visitors. According to the UK Office for National Statistics, the
number of Chinese tourists to the UK has doubled in the past five
years, reaching almost 400,000 in 2018. A 2019 report by Nielsen
found that 93% of Chinese tourists would be more willing to increase
their spending while travelling if a larger number of merchants
accepted mobile payments, making the integration a lucrative solution
for retailers. In total, Wirecard has already enabled over 400
merchants globally to accept China payment methods, with individual
merchants recording a transaction volume of up to EUR 10 million per
month.

In addition, Wirecard and WHSmith are launching their e-commerce
collaboration by enabling the retailer to process payments made using
Mastercard's Pay by Bank App. Pay by Bank App is an online checkout
option that lets customers pay using the bank app on their phone,
making online checkout easier since the payment takes place from the
user's own bank app. As a result, users do not need to disclose
payment details, create new accounts or logins, or remember
additional passwords. Customers benefit from an easy and seamless
checkout experience, and as the solution already enables strong
customer authentication, it is PSD2 compliant.

About Wirecard:

Wirecard (GER:WDI) is one of the world's fastest growing digital
platforms in the area of financial commerce. We provide both business
customers and consumers with a constantly expanding ecosystem of
real-time value-added services built around innovative digital
payments by using an integrated B2B2C approach. This ecosystem
concentrates on the areas payment & risk, retail & transaction
banking, loyalty & couponing, data analytics & conversion rate
enhancement in all sales channels (online, mobile, ePOS). Wirecard
operates regulated financial institutions in several key markets and
holds issuing and acquiring licenses from all major payment and card
networks. Wirecard AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (DAX
and TecDAX, ISIN DE0007472060). Visit us on www.wirecard.com, follow
us on Twitter @wirecard and on Facebook @wirecardgroup.

About WHSmith:

WHSmith is a leading global retailer in news, books and
convenience for the world's travelling customer. With more than 1,600
stores across the globe, WHSmith offers customers a wide range of
books, newspapers & magazines, travel accessories and food and drink.
The Company has a growing international business with over 400 stores
across 99 airports worldwide, including: London Heathrow, Dublin,
Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Dusseldorf, Rome, Madrid, Athens,
Doha, Abu Dhabi, Delhi, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro,
Sao Paulo and the USA. On 30 November 2018, the WH Smith Group
acquired InMotion - a market-leading, pure play digital accessories
retailer in North America - comprising 115 units across 43 airports.
The Company employs around 14,000 people.

Wirecard media contact:

Wirecard AG
Jana Tilz
Tel.: +49 (0) 89 4424 1363
Email: jana.tilz@wirecard.com

Original-Content von: Wirecard AG, übermittelt durch news aktuell