Petty traders going cashless for customers’ convenience

KUALA NERUS: With the increase in new mobile and digital payment options, even small traders in the villages are slowly going cashless making it more convenient for customers.

In Kampung Wakaf Tembusu, for example, you are able to pay with your Touch n Go eWallet for your fish cracker snacks (keropok lekor) when you shop at Keropok Lekor Tok Molor 2 stall, here.

According to the proprietor Surinawati Hamzah, 41, the electronic payment option could offer several benefits for both her business and customers.

“I signed up for the e-wallet application as it has several advantages, top of the list because it is more secure than physical cash.

For obvious reasons, she said there is always a risk of theft when keeping so much cash in the shop.

“Not only do I have to worry about being robbed, but I also have to fret about my workers pocketing the money,” she said.

“Before this, I had to go to the bank almost every day to deposit the day’s taking, but these days I don’t have to make frequent trips to the bank,” said Surinawati when met at her shop recently.

Surinawati who started using the e-wallet account three months ago said, with less cash to handle she had little to worry over her employees’ safety too.

In addition, she said with e-payment every transaction is automatically tracked and recorded.

“In this way, there is less room for errors and less time spent manually tallying and recording transactions,” she said.

Another advantage she said was that with this mode of payment, she could monitor the sales activity without having to be at the shop.

“I was surprised after I put up the QR code for the payment mode, the response was very encouraging,” adding that 30 per cent of her customers were already using this alternative payment.

‘It is so convenient and efficient and I hope more petty traders would pick up e-payment as in future they would also be able to make informed business decisions and improve their bottom line,” she said.

Surinawati’s views were shared by nasi kerabu stall owner Norasiah Abd Manaf, 53.

Norasiah who has been using the Touch ‘n Go eWallet platform at her stall in Gong Badak said, petty traders should keep up with the times for their business to grow.

However a customer, Shakila Abd Rahman, 27, said while digital payment might be convenient for consumers it could fail to work as the system relies heavily on network coverage.

“Several aspects of the facility must be looked into to ensure that payments could be made without interruption and problems.

“I do hope the quality of internet connection in Gong Badak area will be improved as several places are still using 3G network connection.

“This makes it difficult for us as we still need to carry cash as the payment may not be able to get through at out-of-range places” she added. – Bernama