SHANGHAI, Aug. 29 -- THE Chinese online payment Website Alipay.com has expanded its business reach with a new transaction service that enables overseas retailers to sell their products directly to mainland consumers, the company said yesterday.

The service, the first of its kind by a domestic online payment outfit, targets middle-class Chinese consumers who would otherwise travel abroad to buy quality foreign products at lower prices, according to a statement from Zhejiang Province-based Alipay. The Website is the most-used online payment tool in China.

Alipay will charge commissions based on transaction value. The rate was not disclosed yesterday.

The commission will be paid by the overseas retailers, while the service is free for buyers.

So far the company has only three partner retailers, but it expects to expand the list to more than 100 by the end of the year to cover suppliers of products ranging from cosmetics, fashions, bags and jewelry to household and digital gadgets.

Its present partner retailers are Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd, a Hong Kong-based cosmetics retailer; StrawberryNET, which sells discount cosmetics; and Japan-based J Shoppers, which focuses on mail order sales outside Japan.

"We're inviting the world's leading retailers to partner with us to help bring foreign products to China's consumers," said Jonathan Lu, president of Alipay, which has 47 million users.

The strategy is to start from Hong Kong, a major shopping destination for mainland Chinese, and expand to east Asia, Japan, Europe and America, he said.

Chinese travelers spent US$24 billion overseas last year, an average of nearly US$1,500 per person, for foreign-branded products and other goods. In fact, Chinese were the biggest spenders among travelers from all nations, Alipay reported, citing statistics from the Tax-Free World Association and AC Nielsen.

Previously, only eBay Inc's online payment tool PayPal offered overseas buying services for Chinese.

Alipay supports transaction between the yuan and 12 major foreign currencies, including the US dollar, the euro and the Japanese yen.

To comply with state foreign-exchange regulations, consumers using Alipay are allowed to buy up to 30,000 yuan (US$3,846) worth of goods a day from overseas retailers, with an annual cap of US$45,000.