Easy e-wallet and cross-border transactions: How innovation is helping merchants grow and connect with global consumers

We are entering a new age where any individual with an Internet connection, from a street vendor selling handcrafted jewellery to a young entrepreneur working from his bedroom, can reach millions of customers worldwide.

Across the world, digital payments and financial services are liberating small business owners from geographical and financial constraints, embodying the essence of true financial inclusion and growth in the digital age.

According to Statista in 2018, digitally transformed firms represented US$13.5 billion (S$18.2 billion) of global gross domestic product and this number was then forecasted to grow nearly four times by the end of 2023.

A big driver of this digital transformation is digital payments. According to a 2024 report by Research and Markets, the Asia-Pacific region is projected to see over 1.2 trillion non-cash transactions by 2027.

Livestreaming retail and social commerce sales are also forecasted to grow in tandem, and omnichannel commerce trends point to a rising preference for in-store pick-up and increased online sales of physical goods.

Individual sellers and small business owners are moving fast to capture this massive opportunity, as demonstrated by the daily launches of new channels selling goods on live streaming platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

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Helping everyone accelerate in the sphere of digital payments and financial services is Ant International, the international business arm of fintech giant Ant Group.

Ant International is positioned to enable connectivity for mobile payment, help its partners with financial accessibility, and ensure simple solutions for businesses in their international journey or path for localisation, Ant International CEO Yang Peng said at the 2024 Japan Fintech Festival on March 5, 2024.

Global inclusion and prosperity are based on travel, trade, technology and talent, which is why Ant International has established extensive partnerships with public and private sectors across the region to train next-generation innovators with technology strengths and cross-sector perspectives, Yang said.

The company focuses on various areas of innovations such as Alipay+ cross-border mobile payment digital platform, Worldfirst digital payment and financial services for cross-border trade, and the Anext digital wholesale bank.

Here’s how these services are empowering individuals and businesses while unlocking new opportunities for economic growth.

Ease of mobile e-wallet transactions 

Travelling has become more convenient now that tourists can use their local e-wallets in more regional countries.

For example, Singaporeans who have the OCBC banking app or the Changi Pay app can now use these apps to make digital payments in China. This was part of the recent rollout by Alipay+ to enable 11 different e-wallets in China, including NayaPay (Pakistan), mPay (Macao SAR), Naver Pay (South Korea), Toss Pay (South Korea) and TrueMoney (Thailand).

Singapore businesses have also been benefiting from cross-border mobile payments. Visitors to Singapore using the Touch ‘n Go eWallet and Kakao Pay app can pay for taxi rides with Comfort Delgro cabs.

Alipay+ is also integrated into Singapore’s national Singapore Quick Response Code (SGQR) platform. Tourists and locals can use Alipay+ at about 11,000 hawker centre stalls, coffee shops and wet markets.

To provide greater convenience to tourists, Alipay+ has recently enabled six new international e-wallets in Singapore, bringing the total to 12. The e-wallets are: Alipay (Chinese mainland), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China), GCash (Philippines), Kakao pay, Toss Pay and Naver Pay (South Korea), Touch n’ Go eWallet (Malaysia), TrueMoney (Thailand), Hipay (Mongolia), MPay (Macao SAR, China), MyPB by Public Bank (Malaysia), and Tinaba (Italy), while also expanding its merchant coverage.

The addition of new e-wallets before the 2024 Chinese New Year peak travel season provided added convenience to tourists while bringing more growth opportunities to local merchants. Amongst other Asian tourists using Alipay+ partner payment apps, Singapore is the fifth most popular destination globally. Enjoying local delicacies is popular amongst Asian tourists, with food and beverage one of the top categories, including household names like Bengawan Solo, Jumbo Seafood, Lim Chee Guan, Song Fa Bak Kut Teh and Old Chang Kee.

Globally, Alipay+ has been enabling the use of more payment partner apps in key destinations and expanding merchant coverage to make global travel more seamless and convenient. As a result, during Chinese New Year 2024, total cross-border spending on the region’s leading e-wallets powered by Alipay+ increased by 252 per cent year-on-year, while daily average transactions increased by 304 per cent.

Alipay+ is now supported by 88 million merchants in 57 markets, and holds 1.5 billion payment accounts from over 25 e-wallets. According to Alipay+ data, cross-border transactions have increased significantly post-pandemic and tourists tend to use their local digital wallets to pay for food, retail purchases and transportation.

By cutting down physical transactions, digital payments are also helping to drive more sustainable travel.

In December 2023, Alipay+ launched a programme with its partners that offers rewards such as free overseas mobile data and in-app discounts for users who switched to more sustainable activities like taking public transport over cars.

Helping SMEs ride on global e-commerce boom

Thinking of expanding your small and medium-sized business (SME) across multiple markets?

To succeed, business owners need the capability to make and collect payments across borders securely, smoothly and quickly.

This was a complicated matter in the analogue past, but Worldfirst (under Ant International) provides a one-stop platform that lets SMEs receive funds from over 100 international marketplaces with local currency accounts.

So, if you plan to sell your goods on marketplaces like Amazon, Aliexpress, Lazada, Rakuten or Etsy, you can scale faster by tapping Worldfirst’s extensive partnerships with e-commerce sites.

Since 2004, almost one million businesses have sent US$200 billion with Worldfirst.

In 2022, Worldfirst launched its Global Voyage programme that helped businesses to expedite their online store openings to within 24 hours across 28 e-commerce platforms.

The programme connects e-commerce sellers to professional services such as online advertising, logistics and website development to accelerate business growth.

Financing, payment and digital marketing solutions

Is your SME business facing challenges in getting financing from traditional banks?

There is an estimated total of 70 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in South-east Asia, according to Asean’s website.

Collectively, these businesses account for over 97.2 per cent of the establishments in the region, contributing 85 per cent to employment, and 44.8 per cent to the region’s gross domestic product.

To help SMEs achieve their true potential, Ant International launched Anext Bank, a digital wholesale bank in June 2022.

Anext addresses key pain points of small businesses, such as the high barriers to securing a loan. For example, the minimum loan amount from Anext starts from S$5,000, and no documents are required for loans under S$30,000.

Through the Anext Programme for Industry Specialists, Anext Bank will offer financial services directly to 1 million regional SMEs on platforms they operate on through partners like Shopmatic, thus reimagining financial services for financial inclusion and meeting the diverse needs of SME business owners.

AI and Privacy Computing

Looking ahead, Yang said that new kinds of technologies will be making the biggest impact in financial services and infrastructure.

“Previously wallet tech, payment tech and credit tech have been the driving engine for innovating products to serve those underbanked. In the future, AI, privacy computing, and Large Language Models will kick in and drive new stages of financial inclusion,” he said at a panel discussion at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2023.

“These technologies are more than mere tools; they are the harbingers of a new age in financial inclusivity,” he added.

He emphasised that safety and risk technologies would need to keep one step ahead.

“Bad guys will be using AI too. With artificial intelligence generated content, enforcing electronic know-your-customer controls will be more challenging. We need to invest in sophisticated risk tech frameworks to safeguard our business.”

Learn more about how you can grow your business with Ant International.