Helping SMEs in Singapore stay competitive with payment and business solutions
Nets has expanded its offerings beyond just payment services to support SMEs in accessing new customers and enhancing efficiency
Singapore’s Network for Electronic Transfers (Nets), long known as a payments provider, has been reshaping itself to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore tap a wider customer base and streamline operations.
Explaining the company’s evolution, Nets group chief executive officer Lawrence Chan said: “We have to constantly evolve ourselves, because we operate in a very competitive marketplace.”
“We really have to exhibit value to both our merchants and our consumers, (to show) that we are making a difference to their business, to their lives.”
One example of this evolution is SGQR+, an enhanced version of the Singapore quick response code. The roll-out announcement will be made on Nov 7. After its proof of concept last year, the system will increase the number of payment methods that merchants can accept without needing multiple commercial relationships with financial institutions.
Merchants will only need to sign up with Nets to unlock local and cross-border payment schemes, simplifying the process for them.
Beyond payments
Nets’ ambitions extend beyond QR codes. It announced new merchant solutions last November to help businesses streamline and manage their operations. These include:
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- An all-in-one device that can monitor SMEs’ inventory, manage sales, book appointments and track commissions
- A mobile application, launched by Nets in August, that accepts contactless payments
Adoption is still in its early stages, with “low thousands” of businesses using these solutions, compared to Nets’ 130,000 payment touchpoints which process over $24 billion in retail transactions every year.
However, Chan sees potential for growth: “We are trying to scale and we are seeing responsiveness from our merchants in terms of picking up these solutions.”
Nets’ core business remains in payments, but the move towards solutions complements it. “If we can bring more stickiness to payments then it makes sense to offer these adjacent products because they will bring us more transactions,” explained Chan.
This was produced in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Global Finance & Technology Network.
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