Mobile payment systems in Malaysia : Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies

What is Mobile Payment System??
It is a point of sale payment made through a mobile device.

What is Mobile Money(MMWallet)…??
It is an example of mobile payment system in Malaysia. Mobile Money is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd to address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It unlocks the power of the mobile phone to make payments, allowing registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service). This gives the freedom to shoppers to buy products online and pay the merchant using his/her mobile phone without being physically present at the store.

Potentials…

• Sell to Anyone, Anywhere at Any time - The merchant can now sell to people across town, across the country and take payment around the clock, which is not possible with current payment systems. Customers will only need to enter their mobile phone during checkout from merchant e-commerce website.
• No Minimum Monthly Transaction, No Rental Fee, No Merchant Account Required - Release yourself from the pressure of hitting the minimum monthly transaction amount to waive the rental fee, which typically runs at RM150 or more per month.
• Safe and Secure - With Mobile Money, merchants do not have to be concern of cash or cheques or credit card handling problems or fraud.
• Low Signup Fees - Only RM100 for Retailers or RM300 for Corporate, which chargeable after the first 10 transactions. This is hard to beat by any standard!
• Get Paid Super Fast - Super fast settlement in T+2 Days. Compared to other payments systems, Mobile Money guarantees that merchants are paid in 2 working days.

Ways to encourage customer in adoption of mobile payment system…
Usually, people always need to go to the specific destination to clear all their bill payment. But how if they nit to clear different bills at different places? It may be will our 1 whole morning to run from here to there to finish all our transaction. But then now by having the mobile payment system, people can forget the traditional way to clear up all the bills payment. Either busy or free adults can just by pressing some keys to do the mobile banking or payment. It is so convenient to all the users especially in nowadays fast going market.

What is Electronic currency? its advantages and disadvantages??

With each passing day, new developments in electronic currency are emerging. As a result, novel buzzwords such as smartcards, online banking and electronic currency are being used to discuss money.

Now, less than a hundred years after the first bank note was issued, technological progress has undoubtedly created a new direction in the means of payment. The Internet and E-commerce have become an increasingly commercial area, where daily payments are rendered for goods, information and services. As a result, electronic payments are becoming the central part to online business between customer and seller. Traditional applications of rendering payment include credit cards, private label credit/debit cards and charge cards.

Advantages of Electronic Currency Payment Systems

Confidentiality
Privacy Current electronic currency systems vary in their effects on privacy from total anonymity, in which personally identifiable records are not created (blinded coins), to audited systems that collect and store every aspect of each transaction. One of the most attractive features of electronic currency is that, unlike real cash, it is anonymous. That is, when a electronic currency amount is sent from a customer to a merchant, there is no way to obtain information about the customer.

Security

As previously mentioned, the security of electronic currency is provided by the use of encryption. Some experts are weary about the security of online transactions. However, the use of RSA cryptography makes it almost impossible to break the code of a digital signature. Additionally, the enacted digital signature statutes require a certification authority to use a trustworthy system. Therefore, even though there is speculation about the security of the Internet, electronic currency consumers are probably more secure in their transactions than the more traditional ways of doing business.

Disadvantages of Electronic Currency Payment

Fraud

A major disadvantage to electronic currency is fraud. If a consumer somehow misplaces his private key and a perpetrator uses it to withdraw funds, the bank would never know and the consumer would be liable. Additionally, if the security code is broken and the message is intercepted, the hacker will be able to perpetrate fraud on the recipient of the message.

Peer-to-peer double spending

Double spending of digital coins is another potential disadvantage of electronic currency. However, this is only a potential drawback if the consumer chooses a peer-to-peer transaction. In all other transactions in the electronic currency system, the bank is able to check the serial number of each coin in a transaction against its database of spent coins, and if the coin has been spent, the transaction will be denied.

Review on the post – "1st Dell Physical store in Malaysia!"

Dell is probably famous for purchasing online via its website and trough telephone. This is due to its marketing strategies to cut price and lower its cost by using direct sales model. But a couple of years ago, Dell Inc has slowly switched from click-and-mortar to brick-and-mortar e-commerce. Especially in Europe and US, many direct sales stores has been establish to have more face to face interactions with customers.
Last year in Malaysia, the first Dell Direct Store was open in Midvalley Megamall, one of the busiest shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur. I have visited the store located there soon after its opening. Located in the IT corner of Midvalley, the store location is around the center hall and easily noticeable after you walk into the IT section. The Dell store may not be spacious but they offer the display of latest notebooks and computer gadgets.
The physical store provides a better interface for customers to purchase computers and gadgets since there are Dell sales person to assist them in the purchasing. Besides, customers can try on the notebooks and computers before they decide to buy the products. That is why the founder of Dell, Michael Dell has changed the company’s direction from selling directly to its customer online to be the company that has more its own channel and known as the third party vendor.

More Dell store will be set up soon in Malaysia. if Dell is looking for strategic location, Plaza Low Yat will be the best place for a Dell store. As Plaza Low Yat is the most popular IT center in the town, many people will go there to look for computers and the latest IT stuff.

Refer to link :

http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

Pre-paid cash card is a rechargeable stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payment in online or offline. It is a very convenient smart card which is widely and commonly used by everyone to settle payment in ease. The concept of ‘touch and go’ with the pre-paid cash card has made our lifestyle easier especially for those with busy and hectic lifestyle.

In Hong Kong, there is the application of a pre-paid cash card called the Octopus card. This Octopus card can be used in virtually all kinds of public transports in Hong Kong since 90% of the daily journeys of Hong Kong citizens are on public transport, making it the highest in the world! Commonly used public transport includes trains, buses, trams, ferries and minibuses. Besides it also used for the payment at convenient stores, supermarkets, fast food restaurant, on street parking meters, car parks and other point-of-sale applications such as service station and vending machines. The examples of shops that accept the card are PARKnSHOP, Wellcome, Watsons, 7-Eleven, Starbucks, McDonald and CIrcle K.

According to Octopus Card Limited, operator of the Octopus card, there are over 17 million of Octopus cards now in circulating, which the numbers are more than twice the population of Hong Kong. This cards are used by 95 percent of the population of Hong Kong aged 16 to 65, generating over 10 million daily transactions worth a total of about HK$29 billion (US$3.7 billion) a year. Mainly there are 2 types of Octopus cards, the on-loan card and the payment for airport transport. In specific, there are 6 categories of on-loan card offered by the company:

Type: Child (for children between the age of 3 to 11)

Type: Students (For students attending secondary schools and universities, discontinued in 2005 and replaced by Personalised Octopus Card)

Type: Adult (The standard version of the Octopus card)

Type: Elder (eligible varies between different public transport companies)

Type: Personalised (The rainbow-coloured Personalised card is eligible for students to apply with pictures and names)

Besides, in MTR stations, enquiry machines can be found where cardholders may place their Octopus cards on the machines and the machines will display the balances along with a history of last 10 usages. Monetary value can be added to the card through a number of ways. There are Add Value Machines, located at MTR stations, can be used to add more value to the cards. The machines accept cash, and selected machines are also able to accept Electronic Funds Transfer. Alternatively, value may be added with cash at authorised service providers such as PARKnSHOP, Wellcome, Watsons, 7-Eleven, Circle K, and Café de Coral, and also at customer service centres and ticketing offices at other transport stations.

The Octopus card has been internationally recognised, winning the Chairman's Award of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance's 2006 Global IT Excellence Award for being the world's leading complex automatic fare collection and contactless smartcard payment system, and for its innovative use of technologies. Therefore it is very efficient and convenient for customers who purchase this Octopus card, with one card, everyone can settle their payments without the traditional ways of coins and notes.

>>Octopus card reader at a McDonald's restaurant in Central

>> Octopus reader at MTR ticket
gate

<<Octopus card reader in bus

the official website for Octopus, 八达通 ：

http://www.octopuscards.com/corporate/en/index.jsp

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit card debts is not a newly issue to us. We can easily access to credit cards nowadays. Advertisement, lead people to believe that they can live a lifestyle where money is no object and spending has no serious consequences. All those advertisements had shown only the good side such as you can bring happiness to your families but not showing what happen after that.

Causes:

• People may partial understood about credit card - lacking of knowledge of interest rates and information provided when they apply for credit cards also does not read by the applicant.
• Lack of financial and money management skills - People become more depending on credit card due to the convenient and yet encourage people to spend more or sometimes over the limit and buying things that not needed.
• Their attitudes towards debt - students feel optimistic about their potential future earnings and assume that they can easily settle their debts upon graduation.

Preventions:

• early education - set a way to manage your finances in order to avoid overspending on the credit card
• limit the plastic in your wallet - know the information about the credit card which is from your interest rate and fees to how to earn rewards and how long of a grace period you have.
• use it like cash, not a credit card
• pay the balance in full and on time is important to avoid accumulated debts

By taking a few steps of prevention today, tomorrow your finances will have a clean bill of health freeing you to live a life of opportunity rather than of difficulty.