8 out of 10 Saudi small businesses optimistic about recovery, as revealed in new Visa Small Business Recovery study

8 out of 10 Saudi small businesses optimistic about recovery, as revealed in new Visa Small Business Recovery study

Eight out of ten small businesses in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) say they feel optimistic about business recovery in 2021, according to a new study by Visa (NYSE: V), the world leader in digital payments. The majority of KSA merchants (71%) surveyed believe their investment in digital payments will play an important role in their business recovery.     The '2021 Small Business Recovery' study surveyed small and medium businesses (SMBs) in KSA, UAE, Egypt and Pakistan to understand how they have evolved the way they do business to manage the impact of the coronavirus on their bottom line. The study also revealed the key spending trends that merchants believe define the COVID-19 business environment - these include increased use of contactless payments (100% of merchants), takeaways (89%) and home delivery (84%). Merchants in KSA expect these spending trends to continue to grow post-pandemic. When asked about payment habits during the pandemic, most of the KSA merchants polled (84%) indicated that contactless payments were their customers' preferred payment option compared to 68% of merchants at the beginning of the pandemic.  The majority of merchants surveyed (48%) said mobile wallets - such as STC Pay, Mada Pay and Hala Pay -