eCommerce is on the rise as consumers adapt to shopping from home
Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA, 28 December 2020 – Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, today announced Malaysia has achieved a new milestone with contactless payments representing more than 50 per cent of all Visa face-to-face transactions[1]. This is largely driven by usage in key categories such as food and groceries, quick service restaurants, department stores and drug stores in the country.
Ng Kong Boon, Visa’s Country Manager for Visa Malaysia, said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled the adoption of digital payments in Malaysia, especially contactless payments and eCommerce. In the past couple of years, we have seen strong growth in contactless payments due to the expansion of contactless 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 establish a digital presence to adapt in this changing environment.”
“By adopting digital payments, merchants can cater to their consumers’ needs whilst growing their digital footprint, locally and cross-border. 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.
Overall eCommerce spend has grown in strength at double-digit year-on-year growth.[2] The eCommerce category that showed the highest growth for transactions between January and June this year was food & groceries, which increased triple-digit year-on-year. Retail goods had also grown significantly, almost three-fold based in comparison to a year ago.
In addition, Visa’s data showed that one in five active Visa cardholders who did not shop online last year made their first online purchase during the first half of 2020. Essential services, which includes food & groceries, pharmaceutical and health products and utilities, contributed 30 per cent of spend by cardholders who used eCommerce for the first time, followed by retail shopping at department stores and retail outlets. Online purchases for business categories and professional services contributed 19 per cent of the online spend by new to eCommerce cardholders.
“We have witnessed a dramatic shift as more people adopt a more digital lifestyle,” added Kong Boon. “This means that opportunities for online businesses are also growing. We launched the Where You Shop Matters initiative a few months ago to encourage SMBs 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 Malaysia’s cashless agenda,” he said.
Many Malaysians believe that this is a critical time for retailers and business owners to accept digital payments in order to adapt to today’s consumer behaviour. Based on the findings[3], 82 per cent of consumers agreed that it is vital for retailers to accept digital payments, while 83 per cent see the importance of having an online presence.