Safaricom PLC and Ant Financial Services – the world’s largest fintech services provider – have announced a partnership that will allow Kenyans shopping on AliExpress to pay for their purchases using M-PESA. The move especially targets micro-traders in the country who source for goods and other supplies from manufacturers in China, and signifies Safaricom’s continued push to position M-PESA as a truly global mobile money transfer and payments platform.
Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform, AliExpress, has slowly but steadily gained popularity in Kenya as the platform opens up the Chinese vast goods market to Kenyans.
International shopping in Kenya has mainly relied on third-party services such a Vitumob or Something Random, that aim to connect locals to the well-established platforms like Amazon but recently we have seen these shopping websites make an effort to directly reach their customer base in Kenya.
Kenyans shopping on Aliexpress.com will be presented with M-PESA as one of the payment options when checking out their shopping cart on the website. Once customers select M-PESA, they will then key in their mobile phone numbers and will subsequently receive a prompt on their phones to type their M-PESA PIN to complete the payment.
AliExpress customers selecting M-PESA as a payment channel will have their total cost displayed in Kenya Shillings with standard Lipa Na M-PESA Paybill charges applicable for each transaction. As has been the case, shoppers will also have the option of using their post office box numbers as the delivery location for their items.
Here’s how to checkout with M-PESA on AliExpress:
- Ensure you’re using the AliExpress mobile app (both Android and iOS)
- Shop for the goods you want.
- During checkout, select M–PESA as your payment method.
- Enter your Safaricom phone number.
- Confirm your shipping details.
- Click pay now.
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