Customer Loyalty And Retail Experience

Two reasons why you need to have mobile payments

- Satoko Omata

Eight years ago, Starbucks developed its own app for mobile payments. Today, it’s still held up as the gold standard in the United States.

In Asia’s rapidly developing market, where mobile payment is eight to nine years ahead of the West, things are quite different. In China, you can mobile pay for everything from a cab to a mojito or utility bill. WeChat registered more financial transactions in one day than PayPal did during the entire 12 months.

But it’s not just China that’s adopting the trend. Mobile payment is also making massive inroads in Southeast Asia as shopping apps are gaining popularity. Back home, Maybank and CIMB Bank are partnering with Ant Financial Services Group to enable Alipay mobile wallet in Malaysia. In Indonesia, the most populous country in the region with 250 million people, most of the big traditional retailers are unveiling e-commerce plans of their own.

In a recent GfK study: The Connected Asian Consumer, consumers in Singapore and Indonesia also reported fairly high usage incidence of shopping apps (37% and 35%, respectively). This growth is fuelled by affordable smartphones, a massive young and tech-savvy population and efforts by governments and telco operators to expand and improve high-speed wireless networks.

The future has never been clearer. It’s only a matter of time before mobile payment goes mainstream.

THE CONNECTED CONSUMER 

Unfortunately for traditional retailers, the age of the e-commerce has also produced a new consumer – we like to call them the ‘Connected Consumer’ – and their behaviours are shaping the future of retail.