FoxTown and Worldline partnership celebrates 30 years: a milestone in outlet shopping payment innovation

In Mendrisio in 1995, FoxTown Factory Stores opened its doors and became the first factory outlet in Southern Europe. It is the brainchild of Silvio Tarchini, who had seen the success of this type of distribution model in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Now, FoxTown Factory Stores boasts 160 stores, 250 prestigious brands, and over 1,200 employees at its location in Canton Ticino. It remains Switzerland’s only outlet centre offering up to 70% discounts. That, plus its ideal location just 7 km away from the Italian border and next to the A2 motorway, leads the unique retail landmark to attract over 3 million visitors annually. And not just those from the region – in 2024 they welcomed up to 156 nationalities.

Celebrating 30 years of operation in November 2025, FoxTown continues to respect its roots as a family-run organisation but one that has grown to 3.5 kilometres of shop windows. And, as Giorgia Tarchini Gygax, the centre director, highlights, part of the factory outlet’s success stems from its long-standing partnership with Worldline. Together, they deliver payment experiences that go above customer expectations.

Giorgia Tarchini Gygax of FoxTown talks about the 30-year Worldline partnership in outlet shopping and the payment solutions that go with it.

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FoxTown’s collaboration with Worldline began early in FoxTown’s history. Although at first it focused only on enabling Mastercard acceptance, it quickly grew.

Today, Worldline processes over one million external transactions yearly with FoxTown, a testament to its status as the only factory outlet in Switzerland to have an exclusive contract with Worldline for payment processing and solutions. All shops at FoxTown have a Worldline terminal. And brands like Bally, Prada, Armani, Tod’s, Salvatore Ferragamo, Nike, Puma, Tommy Hilfiger, Swatch, Hugo Boss and Morgan are benefitting from Worldline’s secure multichannel retail payment solutions and seamless checkout experiences.

The current partnership has also evolved significantly in other ways, notably including advanced data consolidation and analytics. For FoxTown, the shared data are especially important. It allows the staff to conduct customer analytics – for example, nationality, average receipts, purchasing power, seasonality, among other statistics. 

This data-driven retail is crucial in the modern age. Customer insights enable the creation of tailored loyalty programmes, show the types of customers and the products they are most likely to buy in order to optimise stocks and prices, and overall improve the outlet shopping experience. 

As FoxTown’s success shows, Worldline’s solutions offer several advantages to retailers. Swiss merchants benefit from:

Seamless transactions:
Worldline’s point of sale solutions ensure that the customer experience is always a priority. They accept all major payment methods including Visa, Mastercard, ApplePay, GooglePay, TWINT, PostFinance, WeChatPay, and AliPay. With Worldline, payment processing is smooth, and it is easy to manage transactions as well as make sure that they are fully secure.

Local support, global reach:
Thanks to Worldline’s global reach, retailers can welcome international shoppers confidently with localised payment methods and multilingual 24/7 local assistance. Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) is especially important for transparent pricing and easy checkout: customers can pay in their own currency with Best Rate Guarantee while merchants receive settlement in CHF with no set up fees and reduced payment costs.

Tailored solutions:
Beyond terminals, merchants gain a strategic partner with Worldline. One that helps them go above and beyond, both for customers and their own bottom line, through powerful payment solutions combined with attractive acquiring conditions. Whether for in-store payments or analytics, Worldline offers optimised, efficient checkout and business solutions for Swiss retailers. 

What’s next for FoxTown? Giorgia Tarchini Gygax isn’t sure, but beyond celebrating this important anniversary with customers, brands and staff of the centre, she is dedicated to ensuring that FoxTown never loses sight of its main goal: to offer all visitors a complete shopping experience that combines quality, value, and fun. And it is undeniable that Worldline will continue to be part of that journey.

Whether for discount shopping or luxury retail in Switzerland, Worldline has the perfect payment solutions for merchants.