iPay88 observes e-commerce trends for 2019

The offline market is moving aggressively from offline to online, according to iPay88’s Executive Director, Chan Kok Long. What this means is bricks and mortar shops are starting to sell their wares on the Internet.

This was among the findings that was shared during a briefing to the media, about 2018 e-commerce data insights.

There is a long way to still go however, as online transactions, still make up only less than 6-percent of total transactions in Malaysia.

The rise of shopping on the Internet is partly thanks to mobile devices that enable mobile shopping, and Chan also opined that mobile transactions will become more immersive in the next 3 to 5 years, thanks to 5G connectivity technologies that promise to enable more high-bandwidth applications, for example augmented reality.

Lower cost to pay with convenience

Regulations have also played a role in the rise of online transactions and Chan shared, “Bank Negara’s move to bring down the cost of online banking transactions in the last few years has definitely made online banking the preferred payment method for consumers.”

This BN initiative promoted the use of cashless and digital payments. Of all the methods to pay online, FPX is fast becoming a preferred mode of payment for consumers, he also said.

There are more payments made online, than with a physical credit card; online banking transactions grew three times against credit card transactions on the fourth quarter of 2018. That’s 13.8 million transactions compared to 3.5 transactions for the latter.

Digital and the big data opportunity

In fact, Chan said, more multi-national companies (MNCs) are adopting because of the big data opportunities it avails them; customer buying behaviours captured on these platforms offer huge clues to e-retailers about their preferred items, deals and more.

According to the iPay88 executive director, freebies are the main drivers for consumers to start using digital payments. This is to the point that there are no budgets or capped amounts for promotions.

This may not last for long however, and the wide range of digital payment methods in the market, may see consolidation happening sooner or later.

Chan concluded that another major market disruption he sees, which will cause a major change in e-commerce behaviour is Paynet’s Retail Payment Platform (RPP), which allows non-bank entities to access bank accounts.