‘Contactless payments exceed 50% of transactions’

MALAYSIA has achieved a new milestone with contactless payments representing more than 50% of all Visa face-to-face transactions, says Visa Malaysia.

The company said the figures were largely driven by usage in key categories such as food and groceries, quick service restaurants, department stores and pharmacies in the country.

Its country manager Ng Kong Boon said the Covid-19 pandemic had fuelled the adoption of digital payments in Malaysia, especially contactless payments and e-commerce.

“In the past couple of years, we have seen strong growth in contactless payments due to the expansion of its acceptance across the country.

“Consumer behaviours are also changing with a growing preference for digital purchases.

“We believe small businesses and merchants should focus on enabling digital payments acceptance and establishing a digital presence to adapt to this changing environment.

“By adopting digital payments, merchants can cater to their consumers’ needs while growing their digital footprint, locally and across borders.

“With initiatives such as the government’s Buy Malaysian Products and the Where You

Shop Matters campaign by Visa, business owners can leverage these platforms and resources to expand their online presence and reach their target markets, ” he added.

According to Visa, overall e-commerce spend enjoyed double-digit growth year-on-year.

It found that the category with the highest growth for transactions between January and June last year was food and groceries, which increased by triple digits year-on-year, while retail goods grew almost threefold in comparison to a year ago.

Visa’s data showed that one in five active Visa cardholders who did not shop online made their first online purchase during the first half of 2020.

It said that essential services, which included food, groceries, pharmaceutical and health products as well as utilities, contributed 30% of spend by cardholders who used e-commerce for the first time, followed by retail shopping at department stores and retail outlets.

Online purchases for business categories and professional

services contributed 19%

of the online spend by new

to e-commerce cardholders,

it added.

“We launched the ‘Where You Shop Matters’ initiative a few months ago to encourage small and medium businesses to embrace and embark on their digital transformation journey, including taking their businesses online.

“We believe this is critical to help them adapt, grow and thrive in this new normal and support the nation’s digital transformation plans as well as Bank Negara’s cashless agenda, ” said Ng.