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Vesta: 2 in 3 Filipino Online Shoppers Prefer Paying via E-wallet

A recent survey revealed that 68% of Filipinos, or 2 in 3 online shoppers in the Philippines, prefer using e-wallets as their mode of payment for transactions.

Photo for the Article - Vesta: 2 in 3 Filipino Online Shoppers Prefer Paying via E-wallet

By Shiela Bertillo

A recent survey revealed that 68% of Filipinos, or 2 in 3 online shoppers in the Philippines, prefer using e-wallets as their mode of payment for transactions. 

In a study conducted by Vesta, a transaction guarantee platform for online purchases, the Vesta Online Payment Sentiments survey, which had more than 4,300 respondents from Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines found that 47% of those surveyed indicated that they prefer to pay using e-wallets; with Philippines on the lead having 69%, followed by Indonesia then Singapore with 55% and 18%, respectively.

The survey aims to understand the sentiments of online shoppers in regards to online payments in the midst of digital innovations and global pandemic.

“In burgeoning eCommerce and mCommerce markets like Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, merchants and customers are increasingly vulnerable to false declines, fraud and poor payment experiences. Our survey has revealed that safety and security remains a top concern among online shoppers and there is an unspoken expectation of merchants to put in place the right solutions. Unsurprisingly, shoppers also see the hassle of multiple verification and authentication as a top payment problem. Overall, the results of this survey indicate an obvious and urgent need for sophisticated solutions that offer a better protection against fraud, drive higher approvals while enabling a seamless consumer payment experience,” said Shabab Muhaddes, Vesta, General Manager, Asia Pacific. 

Photo for the Article - Vesta: 2 in 3 Filipino Online Shoppers Prefer Paying via E-wallet

As Indonesia and the Philippines are set for continued hypergrowth in mobile payments over the next five years. More than half (60%) of those surveyed in these two countries indicated that they prefer to pay using e-wallets, attributed to a large unbanked population and low credit card penetration. 

On the other hand, the survey also revealed that the top concern above everything else of online shoppers in all 3 countries is the safety and security. Online consumers also highly consider the quality of their purchased product and lastly the shopping experience. 

However, in the Philippines, online shoppers’ top concern is product quality (33%) which ranked higher by 1% than safety and security (32%), while shopping experience is the least concern with 14% response.

James Melon, Vesta’s Country Director for Philippines noted the significance of the survey to the local merchants, where the country is “the second largest internet penetration in Southeast Asia and more than 80% of the population on social media, ensuring a positive reputation online is important to a businesses’ success.”

“Through our survey, we also found that a significantly higher percentage (73%) of online shoppers in the Philippines rely on past reviews to determine the security of an online site. There is a need to work closely with merchants to strengthen its fraud identification capability to improve overall customer journey and trust, as well as the merchants’ reputation. This will help drive further growth in the Philippines’ eCommerce hotbed,” Melon added.

Photo for the Article - Vesta: 2 in 3 Filipino Online Shoppers Prefer Paying via E-wallet

In all three countries, 47% of respondents have encountered payment problems in the last 12 months. Multiple verification and authentication problems, and declined payments without valid reasons (false declines) are revealed to be the top problems users encounter.

Accordingly, payment problems cause customers to drop out. Results revealed that 3 in 5 would avoid shopping at the ecommerce site again, 54% would warn their family or friends about the ecommerce site and 47% would make a complaint.

Moreover, as online shopping and internet activity increased significantly during Covid-19 a survey revealed that 1 in 3 Southeast Asians experienced online fraud such as account takeover, identity theft and account compromise. In this regard, where account sharing puts consumers at higher risk of fraud, 4 in 5 (81%) Singaporeans and 2 in 3 (68%) Filipinos do not share retail accounts; while almost 3 in 5 (57%) online shoppers in Indonesia share retail accounts with family or friends 

In one of their blogs, Vesta reiterated that “the rise of ecommerce and the rapid uptake of mobile wallets signals the urgent need for merchants to prioritise mobile fraud protection solutions, especially as fraudsters are increasingly targeting mobile apps at a global level.” 

This article is published on BitPinas: Vesta: 2 in 3 Filipino Online Shoppers Prefer Paying via E-wallet

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