Which online payment methods are popular in Malaysia?

According to Maybank ex-President and CEO Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar in the launch of Maybank2u Pay earlier this year...

According to Maybank ex-President and CEO Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar in the launch of Maybank2u Pay earlier this year:

Within our customer base, we have some 2.3 million active users who performed over 2.5 million shopping transactions worth about RM675 million last year (2012).

From the statement above, the average order volume (AOV) for online banking transaction is RM270, that's more than what we would have expected.

Since Maybank commands about 50% of registered users for online banking in the country, there are more than 4.6 million active online banking users in Malaysia. That also implies that there were RM1.35 billion shopping transactions via online banking back in 2012.

If we refer to Malaysia's e-commerce market size and derive PayPal's report, it is estimated that there are a total of RM 2.75 billion e-commerce transactions (includes both product and service sales) in 2012.

So, that means close to 50% of online transactions are being paid by using online banking facilities in Malaysia.

Related article: The ultimate guide to e-commerce statistics in Malaysia and Southeast Asia

Online banking is popular, so how about credit card?

There are 8.2 million credit cards in circulation locally, but how many of those are active?

Citibank with 20% of cards market share has close to one million active credit card users, that means there are around 5 million active credit card users in Malaysia.

Related article: What are the most preferred credit cards for online payment in Malaysia?

However, we are not sure how many of those 5 million active cardholders are using credit card to make payment online. Even if we do, many of them are online banking users too. So, let's look at this from another perspective.

Based on our sampling and findings, there are around 10% to 15% of online orders are being paid by other means, which includes:

1. PayPal (with a few hundred thousands active users in Malaysia)
2. Cash bank-in (offline or manual payment)
3. Cash On Delivery (COD)
4. Other payment services like Celcom AirCash

Hypothetically, that means 35% to 40% of online transactions are being paid by using credit card in Malaysia. As a conclusion here, it is 50% online banking, 35% to 40% credit card and 10 to 15% other payment methods.

Up next, let's look into the online payment trend in our next installment. Is PayPal and COD popular? As an online merchant, do you still need to facilitate cash bank-in? Find out what payment methods do top e-commerce sites in Malaysia accept?