7-Eleven Malaysia has become the nation’s first retailer to launch Alipay, which is now available in all its stores.

CEO Gary Brown says the outlets will be attractive for Chinese tourists who can shop using their Alipay e-wallet. Malaysia had about 2.1 million tourists from China last year and this is expected to grow to about 3.5 million this year.

Meanwhile, the group’s latest-quarter revenue eased by 0.7 per cent to RM522.5 million (US$122.1 million), which it attributes to ongoing softness in the retail market, while profit before tax plunged by 51.1 per cent to of RM10.9 million, primarily because of marginally lower revenue and gross profit coupled with an increase in selling and distribution costs through store expansion, and the impact of a minimum wage increase from July.

Sales in February and March were affected by problems with a third-party logistics provider in delivering products to the stores. The situation has since been resolved.

The group’s gross profit of RM159.8 million was 0.2 per cent down from the corresponding quarter last year, mainly because of the marginal reduction of revenue.

Other operating income burgeoned by 17.4 per cent, thanks to the group’s first main promotion campaign for the year in March.

The group opened 37 stores in the quarter, taking its total to 2154 stores as at the end of March.