Cashless payment for restaurant, catering services on the rise

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hanoi – Cashless payment has become more popular in all sectors, including restaurant and catering services, according to Winnie Wong, Mastercard’s Country Manager for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Speaking at the recent Food and Beverage Conference 2022 in Hanoi, Wong noted that in Southeast Asia, payment for restaurant and catering services in cash fell 60-70 percent due to safety and hygiene reasons.

She said that 2021 was a tough year for catering service sector due to COVID-19 impacts. However, the sector has found the way to adapt to the situation and overcome difficulties, she said, stressing that payment methods of customers have gradually changed.

In order to avoid direct contacts, customers tend to switch to online shopping and cashless payment. Meanwhile, sellers in all scales have also applied digital technologies to enable themselves to conduct online selling and receive cashless payment, meeting the demand of customers and safety requirements amid the complicated development of COVID-19, said Wong.

She commented that before COVID-19 broke out, Vietnam had developed cashless payment in transactions in all sectors, which paved the way for the expansion of the method in the country amid the pandemic.

New technologies have made cashless payment faster and more convenient compared to cash payment. Particularly, payment using QR codes has become more popular, especially in the context of the pandemic, making it easier for both buyers and sellers in conducting transactions.

A recent survey revealed that 72 percent of customers become more loyal to retailers that accept many payment methods, while 85 percent of shoppers wish to pay in their own way and 61 percent said they often avoid sellers that do not accept any e-payment methods.