Visa, the global leader in digital payments, has revealed the great potential for the growth of digital banking and payments in Cambodia, where consumers are only just discovering the power of digital.
According to a Visa’s press release, while consumer interest has been growing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study highlights that digital banking and payments are still fairly new concepts to the market. As such, even entry-level digital payment solutions such as digital banking and social commerce gather relatively limited userbases.
“Awareness remains a major stumbling block for the growth of digital payments, with only 19 percent of consumers knowing about digital banking, for instance. This means we have a great opportunity to drive interest and usage by simply awakening consumers to the options already at their disposal,” Ms. Monika Chum, Visa Country Manager for Cambodia said.
Indeed, of the consumers aware of digital banking services, only 34 percent are interested in using it. While novelty seems to be the major attraction, a lack of understanding around the perceived difficultly to set up this service (32 percent of consumers) may be resulting in relatively low usage.
Similar trends were highlighted in social commerce, where as many as 33 percent of consumers tried shopping through social media for the first time during COVID-19, but only 24 percent are aware of digital payments. Just as with digital banking, consumers are most interested in the convenience and speed (45 percent) of this payment channel as well as its innovative/modern flare (30 percent).
Not surprisingly, more advanced payment options are relatively new to the market and garner even less awareness. Only 14-15 percent are aware of virtual cards, biometric payments and only about one-third were interested in trying them, with virtual cards garnering the most attention (35 percent) and numberless cards the least (28 percent).
The number one driver of interest for biometric payments and numberless cards is their speed and convenience, voted by 54 percent and 45 percent of consumers, followed by a desire to keep up with the latest trends (37 percent) for biometric payments and curiosity to try something new (41 percent) for numberless cards.
These findings from the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study suggest a clear strategy to promote digital payments. The largest impact would be generated by focusing on simple services – such as digitally transferring money to family and friends (63 percent interested) or supporting deposits and withdrawals (60 percent interested). At the same time, basic product education combined with non-complicated incentives like lower costs and better rewards are sure to draw more consumers on board with 45 percent of consumers said they would switch to digital banking for lower costs and another 45 percent for better rewards. C. Nika – AKP
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
