Chen Market X Silkpay: Bringing Asian payment culture to life
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In Paris, if you ask where to find the most authentic Asian flavors, countless international students and Chinese residents will point to one name: Chen Market. Located in the busy 9th arrondissement near Galeries Lafayette, it is more than just a place of comfort for many.
In today's global retail market in Europe, the "last mile" of the customer journey—the payment process—is becoming the key moment that decides the success of a sale and a brand's reputation.
For famous stores like Paris's Chen Market, which serves a large Asian customer base, closing the cultural gap in payment methods is not just a matter of efficiency, but a key part of their growth plan.
This article will look at how Chen Market successfully turned this challenge into an advantage by using Silkpay's all-in-one payment solution. It will also show how Silkpay offers different ways for European merchants to set up payments, helping them accept payments in-store or online affordably from customers all over the world.
How do problems with payments lead to losing customers?
As one of Paris's most popular stores for Asian goods, Chen Market has a large and loyal group of Asian customers, especially Chinese tourists, residents and international students. However, with its previous old payment system, a major problem continued:
Payment method mismatch: Asian customers, especially from China, are very used to the world of mobile payments, like Alipay+ and WeChat Pay. Traditional credit card and cash options don't match how they're used to paying.
Inefficient transactions: Waiting, failed payments, or having to find other options (like getting cash from an ATM) not only makes checkout take longer and slows things down during busy hours but also hurts the customer's shopping experience.
Limited Average Transaction Value (ATV): When paying is difficult, customers often become more careful with their final buying choices. This stops them from buying more expensive items and keeps the average sale amount from being as high as it could be.
Together, these payment problems create a risk of quietly losing customers. Even if a store has the best products, it can still fail at the very last step.
How Silkpay provides a solution for Chen Market
To fix these problems, Chen Market chose to partner with Silkpay to use its latest smart POS system. This was not just a simple hardware change but a complete update to its payment system.
Easy integration of hardware: The PAX A920 Pro POS terminal solution from Silkpay uses its advanced system to bring together many payment methods on one device. Our solution integrates traditional card payments like Visa/Mastercard, mobile payment (Apple Pay, Google Pay), as well as Asian e-wallets, such as Alipay+ and WeChat Pay. This completely removes the operational headaches of needing multiple devices or difficult switching processes.
Easy international payments: With Silkpay, merchants can accept payments from Asian customers in their local currencies (like RMB, KRW, or JPY) while still receiving settlements in EUR. Merchants don’t need to worry about exchange rates or foreign currency handling.
One dashboard to manage everything: Silkpay gives merchants a single, smart dashboard. All sales from different channels (credit card, Alipay+, WeChat Pay, etc.) and from all your shops are all brought together here. Merchants can track sales in real-time and analyze them, turning payment data from just records into a useful tool for making business decisions.
From better operations to business growth
After setting up the Silkpay solution, Chen Market saw great results for its business in several ways:
More completed sales: By supporting the payment methods customers prefer, problems at checkout were reduced. Far fewer customers left without buying because of payment issues.
Growth in average sale amount and total sales: The ease of payment allowed customers to spend more freely. Many tourists and students said that their total purchase amounts went up a lot because they could use the money available in their WeChat Pay and Alipay accounts which is usually more than the money they have available in their overseas bank accounts.
A win for both efficiency and customer happiness: Fast QR code scanning made lines shorter and checkout faster. At the same time, the smooth and easy payment experience became a valuable service, making customers happier and more loyal, and leading to good reviews and recommendations on social media.
More than POS machines: Silkpay's solutions for every European merchant
Chen market's success story is just one example of Silkpay’s many different payment solutions. Silkpay knows that different types of businesses need tools that are the right fit. That's why we built a complete payment system covering online, in-store, mobile situations and local payment methods, making sure every business model can find the most efficient and affordable solution:
Online payments (API or plugin integration): For merchants with their own websites or e-commerce platforms, Silkpay offers a powerful API and ready-to-use plugins (for CMS like PrestaShop, WooCommerce, etc.). without needing complex development, merchants can easily add Alipay+, WeChat Pay, Visa, Mastercard and other global payment methods to their online checkout process, which helps lower cart abandonment rates.
Silkpay app (mobile pos payments): For merchants who want a simple and flexible option, like boutiques, pop-up shops, or event booths, a smartphone is all you need. by downloading the silkpay app, a merchant's phone becomes a fully-functional mobile pos machine, able to create payment QR codes anywhere and anytime to complete sales securely and efficiently.
PaybyLink: for business models that sell through social media, email, or messaging apps, silkpay's "Pay by Link" feature is the perfect solution. Merchants can create a secure payment link with one click and send it to customers through any channel. The customer just clicks to pay, which greatly simplifies the process of getting paid from a distance.
Whether you are a retail chain that needs powerful hardware or an independent small shop that needs flexible tools, silkpay can provide the most suitable payment option and help merchants connect to the global payment network smoothly and at the lowest cost.
Conclusion
Today, Chen Market is not only doing better than before but has also received countless five-star reviews from Asian customers, improving its reputation among tourists and international students.
The story of Chen Market is a small example of what thousands of merchants across Europe experience. They need more than just a tool to collect money; they need a bridge that connects them with global customers and breaks down cultural barriers.
What Silkpay does is build this bridge. Through its powerful technology, Silkpay helps European merchants easily "understand" and meet the payment preferences of customers from around the world, especially from Asia. This is not just a victory for technology, but the best way to show respect for the customer.
About the author: Silkpay
Based in Paris, Silkpay provides omnichannel and secure payment solutions to help physical stores and e-commerce in Europe and the Americas accept more than 30 of the world's most popular payment methods: Visa, Mastercard, CB, UnionPay, Alipay+, WeChat Pay as well as Asia-Pacific’s major e-wallets.
Silkpay is a winner of the LVMH Innovation Award. The company was also selected as a finalist for the "Money 20/20" Best Startup and in the "MPE Berlin” Startup Awards. Silkpay also won the "Best Fintech" awards from Capgemini and BPCE.
Silkpay helps merchants deliver the smoothest payment experience to their customers. We are a talented and international team driven by a single goal: to improve the customer experience and make payments simple and secure.