How real-time payments are redefining e-commerce in Asia Pacific

FASTthe payments consultancy for e-commerce businesses, has released the second part of its new three-part report, ‘The Map of World Payments’, which delves deep into e-commerce payment trends in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

The proprietary data presented in the new FYST report, which was collected across 12 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, shows how real-time payments are transforming the e-commerce industry in APAC.

After the first chapter of the company’s report, which drew attention to the Middle East and Africa, this second part of the APAC region emphasizes the dominance of digital wallets that WeChat Pay, Alipay and Grab in local e-commerce trends.

In this, it turns out that digital wallets represent almost 70 percent of e-commerce transaction value across the region as a whole, and growth rates show no signs of slowing down.

With an agenda to inspire regional merchants to exploit more revenue opportunities by offering locally used payment methods, FYST’s report outlines which payment methods and card types are used in each country.

But it is crucial that the report also describes other locally used payment methods in each profiled country, providing merchants with valuable insight that they can use to optimize their electronic checkouts, reduce the number of interruptions in the shopping cart and increase sales.

In this case, the data confirms that:

• In mature markets such as New Zealand, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services are set to account for around 17 percent of e-commerce spend by 2025.
• The introduction of real-time payment infrastructure is a game-changer in markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines and is set to drive the adoption of account-to-account (A2A) transfers for e-commerce transactions.
• In emerging e-commerce markets such as Bangladesh, cash on delivery accounts for around 90 percent of online transactions, but improvements in internet and mobile infrastructure will see their share fall in favor of mobile payment options.

FYST meets the demand for holistic payment experiences

With the value of cross-border payments expected to reach $250 trillion by 2027, the launch of FYST’s report is timely, as e-commerce businesses move beyond simply offering digital payment options to seek full 360-degree advice and support. In addition, its first-hand market insights help businesses unlock new opportunities in the rapidly evolving e-commerce space.

FYST consolidates payments and fintech innovators under one brand, combining technical ingenuity and in-depth tailored advice to help start-ups scale up successfully.

The evolution of the APAC payments landscape

Roar ZasiekinaCEO of FYST, comments: “The APAC region is known as the birthplace of the digital wallet, and it has become the dominant payment method for e-commerce across the continent, aided by the growing popularity of China’s WeChat Pay and Alipay.

“Given their popularity in the APAC region and around the world, ignoring these two digital wallet giants is simply not an option for merchants, regardless of their location,” continues Zasiekina

“However, other forces are now emerging to reshape the APAC payments landscape. In such an incredibly diverse region, with vastly different payment habits in each market, we are seeing how infrastructure improvements such as the introduction of real-time and instant payment systems are helping to promote financial inclusion, which in turn generates economic growth.

“Given that bank transfers and account-to-account payments tend to be lower in cost than card payments, it will be interesting to look at our data in the future to see how much of a bite has been taken out of card volumes .”

“These market-specific nuances are described in FYST’s ‘Map of World Payments‘ report will provide merchants with the valuable insights they need to tailor their online payment methods with locally used payment methods, enabling them to capture and convert more transactions and reduce cart interruptions. It is our mission at FYST to guide sellers at every step of their journey into global e-commerce with levels of personal support unmatched in the market, she concludes.