SINGAPORE - Shoppers who forget their wallets on visits to Cold Storage, Giant, Guardian and 7-Eleven will soon be able to pay for their purchases with their mobile phone via WeChat Pay.

Local retail group Dairy Farm Singapore and Nets announced on Tuesday (Oct 23) that they have tied up with Chinese e-payment giant WeChat to offer consumers the option of paying with its digital wallet service at more than 600 retail outlets across Singapore.

The service will be available from Nov 1 at Cold Storage, Giant, 7-Eleven and Guardian stores islandwide.

Visitors from China and Chinese nationals living in Singapore will also be able to enjoy the convenience of this payment option, Dairy Farm and Nets said in a joint statement.

Currently, the payment option is being piloted at the 7-Eleven and Guardian stores at 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 (uPOS) terminal.

Mr Alvin Seck, who heads merchant services at Nets, said that such a partnership 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 uPOS terminals to accept WeChat Pay purchases, on top of Nets, QR, Nets FlashPay, credit and debit payments.

Dairy Farm Singapore's regional finance director Tom van der Lee said that more customers are now open to using cashless payments.

For instance, Cold Storage has seen cashless payments increase by 6 per cent after 1,800 Nets uPOS terminals were installed in 2017.

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

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

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