Contactless payments were up by 230 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, according to a study by Visa.

‘Consumer Payment Attitudes’ studied how behaviours have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic towards a cashless economy, and found eCommerce growth was up 5.5 times from the last quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021.

Cashless payments growth was led by digital wallets, contactless payments and QR code payments.

Contactless cards led the way in the food and dining category, with 67 per cent of consumers using them in 2020 for bill payments (71 per cent), retail shopping (58 percent) and supermarket shopping (57 per cent).

Vietnamese consumers have quickly adopted new ways of paying that do not involve physical contact such as tapping to pay.

Dang Tuyet Dung, Visa’s country manager for Viet Nam and Laos, said: “Since the outbreak of COVID-19 we have observed that … people desire safer, more convenient shopping experiences. That is why we are seeing more first-timers adopting contactless payments and more companies shifting to digital, and this trend is likely to continue.”

Driving this transition from cash to alternative payments are security and convenience, with 58 per cent of respondents saying the safety of digital compared to cash is the main reason, and more than half (56 per cent) citing less hassle. Before the pandemic, Vietnamese were spending 3.1 hours per day online, but during social distancing that number increased to 4.2 hours at its peak.

Statistics from Visa’s study showed that 85 percent of consumers used eCommerce applications on their smartphones to pay for goods and services at least once a week, and 44 percent started shopping through social media channels for the first time since the start of the pandemic. — VNS