Singaporeans prefer to use mobile wallets to pay: Study
Singaporeans are ready to make payments via their mobile phones when the various mobile payments such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and AndroidPay roll out in Singapore. Currently, Singapore is one of the leading markets in the world for contactless payments, with more than 4 million Visa payWave transactions made in a month. More than one in three Singaporeans use Visa payWave for face-to-face transactions and the penetration is even higher in supermarkets, where more than half the cashless transactions for Visa are contactless.
“The payments landscape in Singapore has undergone tremendous changes and consumers here are preferring alternative payment methods over cash. This embrace of contactless payments is paving the way for new payments innovation such as mobile wallets. More importantly, the infrastructure for mobile payments is the same as contactless payments. Hence, given that Singapore is already well placed in terms of the contactless payment terminals, we believe that Singapore is ready to embrace mobile payments when they are introduced in Singapore,” said Ooi Huey Tyng, Visa Country Manager for Singapore and Brunei.
Visa’s 2015 Consumer Payment Attitudes Survey showed that 58 per cent of Singapore consumers would prefer making in-store purchases with mobile wallets such as Samsung Pay, Apple Pay and Android Pay, rather than cash. Survey respondents cited faster transactions (71 per cent), ease of use (55 per cent) and no need to have cash on hand (47 per cent) as the top reasons for preferring payment with mobile devices over cash.
High smartphone penetration rates in Singapore has also facilitated the move to mobile payments. Against this background, and with the introduction of new payments technology designed to amplify mobile shopping security such as tokenisation, Visa expects fewer barriers to uptake when mobile payments are launched in the market.
“Mobile devices are ubiquitous in Singapore, and for many consumers, they are very familiar with using their smart mobile devices for a number of everyday functions, including making taxi bookings, ordering food and shopping. As smart mobile devices increasingly become an integral part of our daily lives, replacing wallets full of cash with a fast, convenient and secure mobile device will continue to grow in popularity,” Ms Tyng said.
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