Two Billion Cardholders Coming to the U.S.?

In challenging economic times, where might two billion new cardholders come from? Two billion “sudden” new customers, most of them ready to start buying U.S. goods online?

If you guessed the Peoples’ Republic of China, you’d be right. But if you second-guessed yourself and said, “wait, most people don’t really use Visa or Mastercard over there, so that can’t be right after all,” well, you’d be wrong. True, we’re not talking about well-known Western charge card brands, but we are talking about two billion people with credit, ready to start buying in new markets.

And in China, the card most consumers use is called UnionPay, and has been in existence for ten years, as the result of an association established with the approval of both the State Council and the People’s Bank of China.

Most Western merchants haven’t heard of the card — preferred by up to 98% of China’s card users — since there’s been no way for them to accept charges on it, even when used for online purchases.

That is, until now.

AVP Solutions is pleased to announce a strategic partnership that uses the eGate eCommerce payment processing gateway, which enables your business to accept payments from those two billion new customers wielding UnionPay cards. One of the roadblocks until now was the way China authorizes transactions in contrast to practices in the west. However, the gateway melds these two diverse payment cultures together, including the all-important one of being able to accept payments made in Yuan, and settle them for dollars.

eGATE highlights include:

* China merchant account with connectivity to all major banks

* Multi-lingual (English, Chinese) switchable interface

* Acceptance of UnionPay debit and credit cards

* Advanced real-time reporting

* Settlement in most major currencies including the USD

* Shopping cart compatibility through a simple API

* Issuance of refunds with ease directly or through the shopping cart via the API

* An API to integrate directly with the merchant’s Shopping Cart (“Checkout”) with a UnionPay Credit/Debit card “Buy

Now” button integration

We’ll be running additional informational pieces here on AVP Solutions’ new eGATE alliance, and how it can benefit you. If you’d like to know more, contact your AVP Representative at 1-800-719-9198