Heartland merchants get boost from PayLah cashback initiative

Takings up by 40% on weekends, with wet market stallholders benefiting the most

- Gabrielle Chan

A cashback initiative by POSB has boosted the takings of heartland merchants by about 40 per cent on weekends, as more customers turn to scan-to-pay options.

Since Aug 1, the first 75,000 people who use the DBS PayLah app for their purchases on Saturdays have received up to $3 cashback at more than 22,000 heartland shops, wet markets and hawker stalls, as part of POSB's Support Our Heartlands initiative.

Providing an update on the initiative on Oct 13, DBS Bank said sales across all merchants on Saturdays and Sundays have increased by about 40 per cent, with one million cashback rewards redeemed so far.

Senior citizens and those earning less than $2,500 a month made up 39 per cent of these recipients, it added.

Wet market stallholders received the biggest boost, with PayLah usage tripling among customers and overall spending doubling at their stalls, said DBS. POSB is part of DBS Group.

The initiative, which will run until Dec 31, aims to offer more than two million cashback rewards and discounts at heartland shops and Sheng Siong supermarkets.

DBS said the areas with the most cashback redemptions are Serangoon, Hougang, Sengkang, Punggol, Jurong, Queenstown and Tiong Bahru.