12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment

  • Young working adults from 22 to 35
  • Initial geographic location: Singapore/ Asia
  • Have enough spending power to travel overseas / purchase their own electronics, luxury goods, furniture and other "wants"
  • Like to spend and enjoy and don't save as much as their parents ( Asian cultures generally save a lot more , but the newer generations think that they shouldn't save too much and want to enjoy periodically and not just after retirement)


Unmet Need
Convenient* payment system with low fees ( merchants don't have a preference for cash and give discounts for cash purchases)
*Convenient: 
  • Easy to use/pay with / user friendly design 
  • Available at many merchants 


Need Awareness
The people I interviewed realized that a more convenient and low fee payment system was needed when :
  • They traveled overseas and underestimated the amount of cash they needed. Sometimes they don't plan to purchase as much (e.g more gifts for friends) or don't plan to buy something expensive and doing so puts them over budget.
    When traveling for vacation, they realize such a need during the trips as they start spending.
    One of them is an exchange student and before they came over , he realized he needed a way to spend their money without having to carry a large amount of cash overseas to spend it. He want to avoid paying the fees associated with overseas credit card swipes.
  • Sometimes they forget their card and wish they could use their mobile phone to pay. One person has used a payment system created by the bank , but its not accepted widely by merchants hence she don't use it as often.
    She either forget to bring down her wallet in the office or was not planning to buy anything and only brought her mobile phone.
  • One person is into building their own computer and says merchants at an electronics mall prefer cash as he presumes credit cards charge the merchants a fee and finds it a little inconvenient to have to withdraw a large sum of money to pay the merchants.
    Other people have mentioned they have noticed other merchants either having a minimum spend for card swipes or charging a small fee for using card swipes that don't hit the minimum spend.


Information Search

All of them use google to search for solutions.

For traveling overseas, they search up their bank and look a the overseas swipe charges.
Their terms include their bank's name , "how to avoid overseas transaction fees" , tips for spending overseas.
They all have never asked their friends about paying overseas because they know its either cash or paying the overseas charge with their bank cards.

For the one exchange student , he looked up tips online for exchange students on spending overseas on forums and asked his seniors on how they managed living abroad. The overseas programme manager suggested to exchange students to get a bank account overseas to avoid the fees for overseas card swipes


Summary
This segment is generally aware there are unmet needs in payment alternatives but I would say consumers in general do not realize merchants are being charged a significant amount for card swipes until they see some merchants preferring cash or offering discounts for cash payments.
This segment are very tech savvy and know how to compare products and services. They are capable of finding information online to find the best solutions. 

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