Wal-Mart Stores is teaming up with Alibaba to roll out the Alipay mobile payment service in China — its latest move to increase sales in a tough, but potentially lucrative international market.

    Ant Financial, a financial affiliate of Alibaba, said on Wednesday that the partnership with the world’s biggest retailer would start with 25 stores in Shenzhen, including one of its Sam’s Club locations, and be accepted at all 410 Wal-Mart stores in China by the end of the year.

    The tie-up with China’s leading e-commerce company comes as Wal-Mart looks to dramatically improve its performance in the world’s most populous country. Last quarter, Wal-Mart’s net sales fell 0.7%, while comparable sales, which strip out the effect of newly opened or closed stores, were down 2.3%.

    Wal-Mart has grappled with the perception in China that its prices are not the lowest, among other challenges.

    Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon told investors in February that the company is “taking the right steps to solidify a foundation for long-term growth.”

    One of those steps has turned out to be working with China’s leading mobile payments service: last fiscal year, ended June 30, 2014, Alipay settled $788 billion in transactions, and had some 190 million active users for its mobile app as of last fall.

    The Alipay deal won’t entail new capital spending by Wal-Mart. Its cash registers won’t need extra equipment to accept Alipay Wallet mobile payments, given that basic barcode scanning guns will do the trick. Customers will be able to check out by having their smart phones scanned.

    “Alipay will help us serve our customers better by allowing mobile payment in seconds. Increasingly, our customers want convenience,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Marilee McInnis told Fortune in an e-mailed message. This is all the more important given how prevalent mobile payment has become in a country with such limited credit card use.

    For Alipay, working with the world’s largest retailer can help it increase adoption of the mobile payments service.

    Last month, McMillon told journalists on a trip to Beijing that his goal was not to make Wal-Mart the biggest retailer in China, but rather the most trusted, eschewing a previous strategy anchored on aggressive store expansion. So the company is pulling back on the pace of store openings and in fact is closing many underperforming stores in China.

    The retailer, which first came to China in 1996, plans to open to open 115 new stores by 2017, which would bring its store count in China to 530 locations. By contrast, Wal-Mart has nearly 5,200 in the U.S. across its various banners.

    为了在中国这个形势严峻但潜在利润丰厚的海外市场提升销售额，沃尔玛迈出了新一步：它宣布与阿里巴巴合作，开始支持支付宝付款。

    阿里巴巴子公司蚂蚁金服表示，沃尔玛在深圳的25家分店将率先参与这一合作，其中包括一家山姆会员店。今年年底，双方合作范围将扩大到沃尔玛在中国的全部410家分店。

    这场与阿里巴巴的合作来的恰逢其时，沃尔玛正急于快速提升在这个全球人口最多国家的业绩。上个季度，沃尔玛在中国的净销售额下降了0.7%；剔除新开和已关闭分店的影响，可比销售额下降2.3%。

    沃尔玛在中国面临的挑战之一就是，消费者认为其商品售价并不是最低的。

    今年2月份，沃尔玛首席执行官董明伦曾告诉投资者，正“采取适当措施为长期增长奠定基础”。

    显然，其中一项措施就是和中国主要的移动支付服务商合作。在截至2014年6月30日的财年中，支付宝完成的交易金额达7880亿美元；去年秋季，其移动应用活跃用户数约为1.9亿。

    而且，与支付宝合作不会增加沃尔玛的资本支出。超市收银机自带的扫码枪就能完成支付宝支付，无需添加其他设备。消费者只需拿出智能手机，轻轻一扫就可结账。

    沃尔玛发言人玛丽莉•麦金尼斯通过电子邮件向《财富》杂志表示：“移动支付几秒钟内就能完成，与支付宝合作有助于我们更好地服务消费者。顾客越来越希望享受便捷的体验。”这点特别重要，尤其在中国这样一个移动支付格外流行，信用卡使用却非常有限的国家。

    对支付宝来说，和全球最大的零售商合作则有助于扩大其移动支付业务的覆盖范围。

    董明伦上个月在赴北京途中向记者透露，他的目标并不是让沃尔玛成为中国规模最大的零售企业，而是最受信任的一家，不能再延续过去大量开分店的策略。所以沃尔玛正放慢设立新店的速度，实际上还关闭了不少表现欠佳的门店。

    沃尔玛1996年登陆中国市场，计划到2017年再开115家新店，届时其在中国的门店数量将达530家。而在美国，沃尔玛旗下各子品牌分店已接近5200家。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    审校：夏林