Navigating global payments in Singapore and beyond

Payment preferences vary as much as languages in some markets. For example, while credit cards are defacto in markets like the US and the UK, Mexican customers might want to pay using OXXO, and German customers might want to use girocard. 

Accepting the relevant credit cards, bank-based payments, digital wallets, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) methods won’t just increase your conversion rates; they can help lower your payments processing costs too. For example, our recent report found that local payment methods can be up to 49% cheaper than cards.

Popular payment methods in Singapore

With 56% of consumers in Singapore abandoning a purchase if they can’t pay how they want, offering key local payment methods is critical.

Global credit cards, like Visa, Mastercard, and Amex, dominate the Singaporean payments landscape. But alternative payment methods are growing in popularity. For example, Singaporean customers are all aboard the BNPL train with an average spend of SGD 569.63, equating to approximately SGD 10.5 billion every year. Wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay™ are also popular but there are some local alternatives to bear in mind. Here are some of the most popular local payment methods in Singapore:

• Atome: Southeast Asia’s popular BNPL method

• Grabpay: Digital wallet available inside Southeast Asia’s Grab app

• PayNow: Singapore’s real-time payment network

In addition to letting customers pay how they want, it’s essential you offer a seamless checkout experience with minimal friction. When choosing a global payment gateway, you should look for a solution that offers all payment methods via a single integration for your website and app.

An even better option is to look for a global payment solution that offers gateway, processing, and acquiring in the same platform. This allows you to increase your cross-border card approval rates through local acquiring and network tokenization. 

For example, Adyen is an end-to-end payment solution with local acquiring capabilities across all key markets including Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore. We support key local payment methods via a single integration, which can be dynamically displayed based on your customer’s location. It's easy to get started with four different ways to integrate Adyen into your payment flow:

1. Drop-in: An easy out-of-the-box solution to add digital payments to your online checkout

2. Components: Use your business' UI together with Adyen's pre-built components for a semi-customizable checkout

3. API: Create a fully customized checkout together with your brand's UI

4. Plugins: Access our solution directly through your ecommerce platform via any of our partners, like Salesforce or Magento

An optimized in-person payments solution, powered by the latest technology, will help enhance your customer journey and elevate your in-store experience to keep shoppers coming back. 

You can achieve this by connecting all your point of sale devices and data in a single platform so you can see all your payments across your stores and regions, in one place. According to Adyen’s commissioned research, 69% of Singaporean customers want more personalized shopping experiences – it's more important than ever to recognize customers and tailor your offerings to them.

A unified commerce solution, like Adyen’s, can help close the omnichannel data gap by connecting your online and in-person payments in the same system. This makes it easier to build a 360-degree view of your customers, wherever they are.

Our fintech platform also makes it easier to manage your in-person hardware efficiently. Our backend dashboard lets you view the status of every terminal in your fleet, order new devices and replacements, update terminal software instantly through the cloud, and schedule automated reports for all your devices. In this way, we help our customers reduce Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) costs by up to 75%.

For many enterprise businesses today, consolidation and optimization are key priorities. So finding a cost-efficient global payment solution is vital. However, when evaluating payments providers, it’s worth looking beyond cost to the added value they can bring. A good provider will not just save money, it will generate revenue.

For example, Adyen’s end-to-end payment solution was built to optimize payments every step of the way. Here are some gains we’ve managed to achieve for our enterprise customers: 

• Reduced transaction costs by an average of 59% by processing domestically instead of cross-border.

• Reduced processing costs by 26% by routing transactions through the cheapest network.

• Reduced card scheme fees by 16.5% by sharing Enhanced Scheme Data (ESD).

• Generated $7.5 billion in incremental revenue over 12 months for the top 100 businesses on our platform with network tokens.

• Reduced operational full-time equivalents needed to launch into new markets by 75%*.

Explore potential ways to save in our report, Strategies to reduce your total cost of payments. Alternatively, get in touch below and discover how we can help you improve the performance of your global payments in Singapore.

* Source: The Total Economic Impact™ Of Adyen study by Forrester (Oct 2021)