In Malaysia, digital payments are becoming the payment method of choice whereby 70 percent of consumers prefer merchants accepting digital payments compared to those that only accept cash, according to the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study 2018.
60 percent of respondents believe going cashless offers greater payment security and better tracking of their spending, hence expecting their use of digital payments to increase over the next year. The merchant categories that consumers expect higher usage of digital payments include large shopping malls (65 percent), supermarkets (60 percent) and bill payments (57 percent).
The benefits cited for paying with digital payments include convenience (70 percent), hassle-free (62 percent), and wide acceptance (56 percent).
“We are encouraged to see a growing preference for digital payments among Malaysian consumers. We see a similar trend based on our VisaNet data, where the total value of consumer spending on Visa and number of transactions have increased double-digit percent year on year. However, there are continued opportunities for growth because cash still accounts for more than 60 percent of consumer spending in Malaysia,” said Mr. Ng Kong Boon, Visa Country Manager for Malaysia.
“In the past few years, we have concentrated our efforts on expanding merchant contactless acceptance in the country. To date, we have enabled contactless payments acceptance in major merchant categories such as petrol stations, supermarkets, quick service restaurants and laundromats. As a result, Malaysia is now one of the fastest growing countries in Asia Pacific in terms of contactless payments usage. We are confident that our goal of becoming a cashless nation is moving a step closer because merchants and consumers appreciate the frictionless payments experience brought about by digital payments.”
