Digital Payments: A Crucial Investment for Business Survival and Growth
Pandemic induced e-commerce boom has declined, but consumer adoption of digital payment technologies will stay and grow.
I moderated a panel hosted by #Paypal and e27: Asia tech news with Avantika (digital leader for retail) and David (digital leader for the gaming industry). I have for you here a summary.
It doesn’t do the webinar justice, but it’ll be a further waste if it goes unnoticed.
Three (3) Main things that we covered:
1) If you run a business, you need to adopt digital payment, why?
2) With the massive proliferation of payment options, how to choose the right payment partner?
3) How to evaluate existing or potential payment partnership experience.
Answers to Q1:
Why you need to adopt digital payment
- Digital payment is crucial for offline retail in developed markets, a lot of people stop carrying big amounts of cash. and it’s going to be the same for emerging markets.
- Customers abandon their transactions (offline or online) if their preferred payment method is not available.
- Similar to when Covid-19 first happened, business that struggles to get online and collect payment is first to go.
Answers to Q2
How to choose the right payment partner? (In no particular order of importance)
- Potential Revenue: the potential customers/revenue this digital payment partner can bring to you
- Coverage: In a developed market, credit cards cover all consumers; In an emerging market, each digital payment solutions have a different target consumer group they serve.
- Reliability: Choose a payment partner who cares about solving your (merchant) problems, not just about profiting from your business.
- Support: The level of support they are providing and support hours. When you really need them, they should be there and need to be able to resolve your issue.
- Cost: Different payment providers have different rates. Some of them charge differently for payments made from different countries.
Answer to Q3:
How to know if you have the right payment partner?
- Know your business and your objectives when choosing a payment partner. Reaching new customers can be very different from improving customer experience. (Eg: Coverage VS Custom Checkout Integration)
- If your existing digital payment partners do not serve your business objectives, consider replacing them or getting a new one, don’t be distracted by the flukes/features.
- If you are looking to expand your payment option, You want to choose a complimentary payment partner that serves a different purpose.
- If your business doesn’t yet process huge volume of digital transactions or amounts yet, don’t worry about the 1%, 3% or 5% charge. The potential missed opportunities are larger if you do not offer them the right digital payment solution.
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If you want to stay connected and learn about the latest trend in payment, banking and e-commerce industry. Join me at Seamless Asia on 27–28 June at Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Singapore.
BONUS: You can get free booth to exhibit (for startups) or free passes worth SGD 995 (for relevant guests). Connect with me to get them!
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