Payment security is key as Asia Pacific resets digital commerce in post-pandemic world, Visa reveals

According to the press release, the company addressed more than 1,500 partners and clients in its first virtual edition of the Asia Pacific Visa Security Summit and stressed the need for robust payment experiences in a changing commerce environment. 

Visa has charted consumer behaviour changes along three trends pervasive in Asia Pacific – contactless payments are becoming a health and safety priority, on-demand ecommerce experiences have heightened expectations of quality and speed of service, and lines between ecommerce and physical buying have been blurred. As a result, fraud has migrated from traditional to digital commerce and Visa is urging the industry to take proactive steps to tackle them. Consequently, these are the following trends that point to new ways in how consumers shop and transact:

• Contactless payments – As consumers prioritise health and safety, the spotlight will focus on contactless payments and tap to pay infrastructure. In Asia Pacific, one in two face to face Visa transactions are now contactless. Visa expects contactless payments to replace cash and become the preferred payment method for businesses and consumers.

• On-demand ecommerce experiences – Shoppers expect products and services to be available when they want and where they want. This will require faster, smoother, and more convenient buying and payment experiences.

• Blurring of lines between ecommerce and physical buying – Visa data shows that excluding travel, global ecommerce payment credentials grew over 20% in the last quarter versus 2020, while ecommerce payments volume averaged at least 30% growth in India and Singapore over the last three quarters. This shift is likely to persist as ecommerce growth continues to be robust even as consumers begin to return to stores.

Furthermore, Visa Token Service (VTS) turns sensitive payment data like card numbers and account details into randomised tokens, thus devaluing data and rendering it useless for fraudsters even if stolen. Data for the US shows that tokens can reduce fraud by 26% on average compared to online card transactions where consumers enter their card details for making payments.