Visa has released its 2020 Consumer Payment Attitudes Study, which covers insights and trends in the industry across key markets in Southeast Asia (SEA), notably in digital payments, digital banking and the future of commerce.
Over the years, Southeast Asia has become a hotbed of payments innovation. The payments landscape in the region has become fragmented, and fast-changing consumer habits suggest that we are on the cusp of the Fourth Payment Revolution – where digital-first experiences in payments and banking will redefine the way consumers live.
As a network business, Visa is looking beyond cards and payments to enable the movement of money anywhere in the world for everyone as well as provide consumers with seamless, intuitive, intelligent and secure commerce experiences in the Fourth Payment Revolution and beyond.
On digital payments, three in four consumers in Southeast Asia now use contactless payments more frequently than they did two years ago, notably contactless card payments (78%) and mobile contactless payments (74%). Singapore currently leads the region in usage of contactless card payments (84%, versus SEA average of 41%) and mobile contactless payments (56%, versus SEA average of 36%).
Also, seven in ten Southeast Asian consumers expect their usage of cashless payments to increase further in the next 12 months, with this trend being led by consumers in Vietnam (74%), Indonesia (73%) and Thailand (72%).
With approximately 630 million consumers in the region currently unbanked, three in four Southeast Asian consumers are interested in adopting digital banking services. This interest is largely led by Thailand (84%), Vietnam (81%) and the Philippines (78%), while Singaporean consumers show more moderate interest (64%). The majority of Southeast Asian consumers (68%) are willing to move some services over to a digital bank – particularly consumers in Myanmar (79%), Singapore (76%) and the Philippines (73%).
In addition, less than one in three consumers are willing to move all services over to new entrants. Over four in five Southeast Asian consumers (81%) are confident in the safety of their personal information when making mobile payments and nearly three in five are willing to share financial information with banking providers (59%).
The future of commerce is driven by innovation, with emerging technological trends, such as voice command, zero checkout, smart mirrors and virtual reality, changing the way we live, pay and shop. Over two in three consumers are interested in using digital voice assistants for payments (67%), while nearly four in five consumers are interested in zero checkout (77%) for a faster, more convenient and frictionless shopping experience. Nearly three in four consumers (73%) are also interested in interacting with smart mirrors and virtual reality retail displays if available.
Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker