Why pandemic-led digital payment trends are here to stay in the Gulf

Why pandemic-led digital payment trends are here to stay in the Gulf

Digital payment developments in the UAE which coronavirus accelerated are here to stay even as the country gradually returns to normal, according to Visa's regional president.

Andrew Torre, pictured below, believes this acceleration was led by the country's small and medium businesses (SMBs) which he describes as resilient and adaptable, calling them “critical” to the economy.

In an interview with Arabian Business, Torre, regional president for CEMEA, summarises the pandemic's impact on UAE's SMBs in 2020 and its role in their shift to digital platforms. He also outlines the e-commerce trends we are likely to witness this year.

Let's begin with a recap of how 2020 was for the region's SMEs?

Mildly put, it was a very difficult year for everyone. There were a couple of things that came out and we broke them down into three broad segments.

We saw segments that were elevated - and these will be very intuitive to you because they're the things that you would have spent on as well- such as food, pharmacies, really-needed retail, services and utilities.

Then we had a segment that was impacted at first but then really started to recover. Here we are talking about retail goods, healthcare, apparel, home improvement and home supplies. Since