Sabuncu also said that the reason why more people don’t use cashless more often could because existing payment options are already convenient enough
The push for a vibrant and robust cashless ecosystem has become a national-level conversation, thanks to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally speech last month.
The discussions on how public and private enterprises should carry out the national agenda — or if it even should be prioritised — will likely continue over the next few years. But one thing is for sure — more people will continue to adopt cashless payment modes as services, such as Grab and Apple, encourage consumers to store their bank account/credit card details on their platform.
New entrants to the local ecosystem will also fuel the e-payments arm race. For example, just last year, US-based e-payments giant Stripe made its landfall in Singapore.
Piruze Sabuncu is leading Stripe’s campaign in Southeast Asia as the company’s Head of SEA and HK. Today at Slush Singapore, a startup event founded in Helsinki, Sabuncu spoke to Jacquelyn Cheok, a correspondent at The Business Times, about her thoughts on cashless payments and what the future might hold for it. Here are some key takeaways from the conversation.
On what a cashless society will look like
A cashless society will be a more convenient society for consumers. Sabuncu provided a few anecdotes to demonstrate her point. She said she took a Grab ride to the conference, and paid for her fare using GrabPay. This option allowed her to enjoy the ride without worrying about payment methods.
Another anecdote involved her misplacing her wallet while she was in San Francisco. Thankfully, she had her phone with her, so she was still able to take Lyft to get around and order food because her credit card details were synced to these services.
On the barriers preventing greater e-payment adoption
Consumers are more willing to entrust their credit card details in the hands of merchant and payment platforms. But currently, not all these processes are seamless enough.
Merchants and e-payment providers need to work hand in hand to create frictionless payment flows. In other words, it all boils down to the user experience (for example, reducing the steps it takes to complete a transaction and completing the entire process on one single platform).
Another barrier is convenience — not that e-payment methods are inconvenient, but current payment methods, such as cash, already do the job well enough, so consumers don’t feel the need to switch.
Also Read: Razer lays out US$7.34M plan to roll out RazerPay, an e-payments system for Singapore
But as enterprises help businesses adopt e-payment methods, the use cases will continue to grow and consumers will find e-payments becoming more intertwined with their daily habits (just look at Apple Pay, for example).
On why e-payment adoption looks set to increase
The internet is now in a pretty mature phase. Data is becoming cheaper, internet speeds have become a lot faster, and people are coming online in larger droves than ever before.
This has led to the creation of comprehensive online tools such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), which allow businesses to host entire platforms on cloud servers at relatively cheap rates, and Stripe, an an e-payments service that can be integrate into any platform with a few lines of code.
Both AWS and Stripe are used by small startups and large enterprises alike. This helps the smaller businesses build trust among consumers because they are using tools that reputable enterprises are also using.
Stripe has also integrated Alipay, meaning that Chinese consumers can make online transactions in markets that do not have Alipay, and will in turn drive up Stripe’s user engagement.
Also Read: Thailand wants its future to be e-payments, presenting opportunities for an emerging fintech scene
Using e-payments also allows businesses to collect valuable insights on their customers’ behaviour, enabling them to optimise their inventory and stock products suited for each market or demographic. They can also use the data to fine-tune their backend and manage their working capital.
All in all, going cashless will increase a country’s competitive edge. Businesses that offer cashless payment methods will able to enter into a large, borderless market, and in turn, contribute to creating a more efficient economy back home.
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