Digital payments for online shopping overtake cash

One of the country’s leading financial technology companies said noncash and digital transactions were the preferred means of payment for online shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

PayMaya founder and CEO Orlando Vea said e-wallets, cards and bank transfers reached more than 50 percent of all online buying in the country. He was citing data from internal and external sources such as a report from Google, Temasek, Bain & Co. and Euromonitor.

“In 2020 alone, we processed over P95 billion worth of online shopping transactions across all of our platforms, which only shows that consumer preference for cashless payments and online shopping is overwhelmingly present,” Vea said in a statement.

Speaking during the launch of the updated Department of Trade and Industry e-commerce roadmap for 2022, Vea said fintech players were poised to play an even bigger role as more business activity pivots online.

Vea acknowledged the global health crisis played a role in accelerating the push for e-commerce.

“Consumers are now used to ordering online or via their phones and paying via cashless, and many businesses have accelerated their migration to digital, so there’s no turning back now when it comes to digital payments and e-commerce in the Philippines,” he said. INQ