Payment service provider Visa has commented that most Malaysians will retain “new normal” shopping and payment habits in their daily lives even after the pandemic is over. This observation was made based on Visa’s latest Consumer Payment Attitudes study – which was conducted between August and September 2020, across eight markets in Southeast Asia.

According to the study, 45% of its Malaysian respondents said that they will continue to utilise cashless payments post-Covid-19, whereas 30% will go on to shop at big marketplaces online. Additionally, 39% and 31% of respondents will also keep buying from local and home-based businesses, respectively.

Aside from that, Visa’s study also revealed that more than four out of ten Malaysians shopped online through websites or apps for the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than three in ten did the same through social media channels.

In terms of payment behaviour, 63% of respondents said that they increased their use of contactless card payments. In fact, Malaysian cardholders made an average of seven contactless payment transactions for every ten transactions. Meanwhile, 88% of those surveyed made use of home delivery services, of which 36% are first-time users.

Aside from that, there has also been an increased preference for digital commerce platforms. Online shopping through mobile applications and websites has grown by 83% while shopping via direct delivery over phone orders went up by 65%. Malaysians are also flocking to shop at online marketplaces (48%) and home-based businesses (44%).

The country manager for Visa Malaysia, Ng Kong Boon said that these “new normal” payment habits have come about because personal safety has become a priority for consumers. “We believe that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, digital commerce and consumer payment behaviours have transformed and will soon become the new normal. The pandemic has accelerated the nation towards a cashless society as we see more new users of digital commerce and more Malaysians carrying less cash in their wallets compared to pre-Covid-19 period,” he shared.

The Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes study has engaged more than 7,500 consumers as respondents.

(Sources: Visa, Bernama, Digital News Asia)

• TAGS:
• Cashless Payments
• Contactless Payments
• Covid-19
• E-Commerce
• Ng Kong Boon
• Post-Covid-19 Economy
• Visa
• Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study