More millennials shopped online during holidays

MANILA, Philippines — More millennials shopped online and used cashless payments in the last two months of 2017, according to PLDT Inc.’s digital innovations arm Voyager Innovations Inc.

In particular, the number of account holders of Voyager’s digital payments service PayMaya who transacted online jumped almost three-fold in November to December 2017 from the same period in the previous year.

“While mall shopping is still the norm for most Filipinos, we saw a marked increase in online shopping among our mostly millennial user base during the 2017 holiday season,” Paolo Azzola, chief operating officer and managing director at PayMaya Philippines Inc. said.

He said online transactions recorded by PayMaya account holders further rose when different online marketplaces such as Lazada, Zalora, and Takatack launched their big online sales in November and December, wherein PayMaya gave an additional exclusive 20 percent discount.

In the last two months of 2017, online transactions via retail merchants like Lazada topped the list for PayMaya account holders.

Azzola said the growing use of cashless payment methods in online retail sites show customers are now using other payment options such as PayMaya for their purchases despite the availability of cash-on-delivery.

“On top of the online promo offerings, convenience and the worsening traffic in major cities are probably compelling more individuals to do their shopping online,” Azzola said.

He said online shopping is also becoming an attractive option for consumers given flexibility by online merchants in terms of payment methods.

Over the past two years, the adoption of digital payments has risen due to the introduction of prepaid mobile money payments services including PayMaya.

These services promote financial inclusion as any mobile user in the country can create an account and use such for online transactions. 

Earlier, Azzola said Voyager is aiming to have 30 million users for its products which include digital payments app PayMaya and mobile wallet Smart Money by 2020.

At present, there are eight million users of PayMaya and Smart Money.