Computop, a payment service provider, is adding Alipay, a third-party online payment solution in China, to its Paygate payment platform (view press release). As part of the addition, Computop Paygate customers will now be able to provide Alipay as a payment option to their customers. The companies hope that this will help to support merchants’ expansion into the region, where online retail sales have been growing and are expected to continue to increase.

The deal follows recent research which indicated that around 77.4% of first time online shoppers in China chose Alipay to pay for their first online purchase. According to the survey conducted by China IntelliConsulting Corp, 88.8% of respondents named Alipay as their most frequently used online payment tool.

Alipay claims to have around 650 million registered accounts as of December 2011.