ClickDishes Teams With Alipay For Mobile Orders

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes the rollout of a mini-program for mobile food ordering in Canada with ClickDishes and Alipay. In addition, Auchan is planning to bring a cashierless store to a community in France, and Safaricom teamed up with KAPS for parking payments in Africa.

ClickDishes and Alipay rolled out a mini-program for mobile food ordering in Canada, according to reports. Through the offering, diners can request and pay for their food at restaurants in the Canadian cities of Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. The latter city, according to an Alipay official, is “a key destination for Chinese consumers.” ClickDishes CEO Alec Wang said, according to reports, “We are excited to partner with Alibaba’s Alipay to provide convenience for Chinese tourists to explore local restaurants.” According to reports, the startup is the first food-ordering platform in North America on Alipay’s platform.

And, in Europe, grocery retailer Auchan is planning to bring a cashierless store to a French community, according to reports. In order to access the space, which is said to house roughly 500 products that are primarily snacks, shoppers will scan their smartphones. The store itself will run around the clock without cashiers, but an employee will put items in the store for sale. And, while employees will only be able to access the store at first, it could become available to other shoppers in the future.

In Africa, Safaricom teamed up with KAPS for parking payments at places such as hospitals and malls, Brits In Kenya reported. In order to use the service, customers can make payments in two steps after dialing *486#. With the offering, users can also use M-PESA 1Tap cards instead of KAPS cards for parking lot access. Safaricom Chief Financial Services Officer Sitoyo Lopokoiyoit said, according to the outlet, “We realized that parking is one of the services that still relies heavily on cash and there was a gap for us to offer our customers convenience, ease and simplicity to pay parking fees. Motorists can now enjoy the freedom from having to carry around cash, the hassle of looking for change and queuing simply to pay for parking.”