Despite the challenges many businesses faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, e-Commerce was able to ensure that many of them could still carry on with their business. While consumers could not shop physically, online shopping proved to be the next best option for them.

The beauty of e-Commerce is that it is not just for selling physical products, but also for services. Aside from listing on a services marketplace, companies could also sell promotional e-vouchers, or include a shopping cart system on their own websites. Naturally, the next important step for them was to understand consumer behavior.

Realizing the potential of e-Commerce, banks, large enterprises, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and even government agencies begin adopting e-Commerce. Fintech became an enabler of e-Commerce with more startups developing digital payment solutions, and businesses turned to artificial intelligence to help improve their operations and customer experience.

Consumer demand for real-time payments, too, is on the rise in Malaysia as the pandemic accelerated demand for rapid, contactless payments, according to research by ACI Worldwide and YouGov.

With increased internet penetration and smartphone use, especially within emerging economies in the Asia Pacific (APAC), consumers now expect convenience and speed with mobile apps and instantaneous payments, an area in which the traditional financial industry has struggled to keep up…read more.