Visa report: two thirds of UAE retailers see increase in revenue with digital payments

Visa reports that two thirds of UAE small retailers have seen an increase in revenue following acceptance of digital payments. The Visa survey, conducted by 4SiGHT research and analytics company, interviewed 208 small retailers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. Only 50 retailers accepted cash payments, and the other 158 accepted digital payments.

"Among the merchants accepting credit card and mobile digital payments, 56 percent have a contactless point-of-sale machine and 77 percent said they plan to invest in new payment technologies in the near future," added the paper.

It was announced yesterday that according to a new report from Visa, almost two thirds of SME retailers have seen an increase to footfall and revenue, following the acceptance of digital payments. 

"While 68 percent of those polled by Visa said their revenue rose after installing a contactless point-of-sale device or other payment technologies, 63 percent experienced an increase in footfall. In contrast, close to half of cash-only retailers said they lost a transaction because customers were not carrying cash at the time of purchase," added the article in today's edition of The National.

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"Acceptance of digital payments clearly benefits small retailers as evident by the survey findings," said Marcello Baricordi, Visa’s general manager for Mena, in a statement.

"Not only are they more secure, quicker and more convenient than cash, digital payments provide a data trail, something cash doesn’t do, that can help merchants better communicate and target offers to customers and offer loyalty programmes, and enhance overall customer experience, to name a few, which help improve profitability.

Part of this increase can also be attributed to the growing commonplace of contactless, and the introduction of eWallets from major companies such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, and local players like Etisalat Wallet and Beam Wallet. According to a report from US-based TechSci Research, the UAE mobile wallet market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 24 per cent and hit $2.3 billion (AED8.44bn) by 2022.

"In light of the UAE’s goal to become a cashless society by 2020, we want to encourage and support small retailers in every possible way in their migration from cash to digital payments,"  Baricordi concluded.

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