Convenience drives online shopping among Malaysians

The recent survey conducted by Visa shows Malaysia was undergoing a debit card revolution as a 50 per cent increase year-on-year in debit card spending in the country for the past four years and this has recorded Malaysia as the country with highest usage of debit card in South-East Asia region. 22.9 million transactions worth RM5.5 billion were made using debit card between January and August this year, revealed by Bank Negara Malaysia’s statistics.

According to Visa country manager for Malaysia Stuart Tomlinson, e-commerce is a key driver of growth in Visa debit card usage and they noticed a 60 per cent increase in online spending on debit card this year. “80 per cent of the respondents have shopped online in the past 12 months and convenience is the main reason for online shopping,” Stuart said.

At the same time, 43.4 per cent of Malaysia’s population was reported used internet banking facility between January and June this year.

by Terry Brown