Bandar Utama City Centre Sdn Bhd (BUCC) partners with AmBank to enhance Bandar Utama’s Cashless City Masterplan
Monday, 16 January 2023 - In line with its township masterplan to continuously drive the nation’s digital economy forward, Bandar Utama City Centre Sdn Bhd (BUCC) is working with AmBank to enhance Bandar Utama’s cashless city initiatives powered by AmBank’s suite of digital solutions through a strategic partnership. Cashless and contactless payments are now enabled within Bandar Utama via BUCC’s APOS A8 Unified Payment Terminals at multi award-wining regional mall 1 Utama Shopping Centre as well as other locations like Centrepoint, AVANTÉ Hotel and The Club @ Bukit Utama.
BUCC’s APOS A8 Unified Payment Terminal is a card terminal available at the merchant’s point of sale that accepts debit and credit card transactions, which also allows shoppers to digitally redeem and earn UPoints via Bandar Utama’s loyalty card ONECARD Privileges+ at participating outlets with each purchase. This offers customers more options when making cashless payments for a seamless shopping experience.
Dato’ Sulaiman Mohd Tahir, Group Chief Executive Officer, AmBank Group said, “This partnership aligns with AmBank’s vision to be a key partner in fostering societal digital transformation through innovative and convenient financial solutions. It is timely as we forecast a higher footfall at shopping malls, particularly during the festivities period. The country’s retail sales growth continues to rise to a crescendo amidst economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In parallel, we observe a shift in consumer behaviour, coupled with the acceleration in digital adoption in the retail sector. This further strengthens the need for synergy between banks and the retail sector to boost customer engagement.”
Aaron Loo, Managing Director, Retail Banking, AmBank said, “Opting for a cashless route not only enhances shopping experience for consumers, but it also benefits merchants by providing greater flexibility, added convenience and enhanced security.
Through the alliance of innovation between AmBank and BUCC, the APOS A8 Unified Payment Terminal now equips businesses with digital and alternative payment solutions directly via merchant’s point of sale, enhancing customer experience. Furthermore, it eliminates the need for merchants such as retailers in 1 Utama Shopping Centre to have multiple terminals to accept payments, resulting in a lower operating cost. As digital payments continue to gain traction with consumers reducing the need for cash, we see an opportunity for AmBank to accelerate this conversion by partnering with BUCC.
This will bring benefits to customers as digital payments to physical merchants are extremely convenient as seen with the sharp growth in usage of Apple Pay, QR Payments as well as contactless cards.
In addition, digital payments will help reduce cost of cash handling which will benefit merchants as well as the country.”
He added: “A recent study by VISA shows that 74% of Malaysian consumers have succeeded in going cashless in 2022 and 56% are using contactless card and 40% mobile contactless payment. This further reinforces the need for AmBank to seize the moment in ramping up our digital offerings and I’m excited that BUCC will be working with us on this initiative.”
Always at the forefront of innovation, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, managed by BUCC, has consistently digitalized the retail mall landscape by leveraging on technology to deliver the best shopping experience alongside market trends to its shoppers.
A pioneering force since the early beginning, 1 Utama boasts the first mall-side loyalty programme in the world – ONECARD Privileges+ introduced in 2006 and is officially the first mall to take the lead in launching the first retail mall E-wallet 1PAY in March 2019 and E-Commerce platform ONESHOP.com.my in January 2018 to drive electronic cashless payments and online shopping in Malaysia.
Tan Sri Dato’ Teo Chiang Kok, Director of 1 Utama Shopping Centre commented, “We believe in investing in a seamless retail ecosystem so that customers enjoy the ease of cashless shopping. Hence, we are delighted to introduce the new debit and credit card function in our APOS A8 United Payment Terminals together with AmBank to provide greater flexibility, added convenience and enhanced security for our customers. This single integrated payment platform allows 1 Utama tenants, for example, to reconcile and track credit card payments with an all-in-one report together with our existing ONECARD transactions. This comprehensive holistic insight of shoppers’ payment behavior is useful for our tenants to customize their marketing approach for targeted promotions and campaigns.”
He added, “It is imperative that we stay relevant to changing trends and demographics to consistently grow and expand our omnichannel marketing. We have upgraded 1 Utama’s mobile app into a SuperApp in March 2022 as consumers are demanding mobile-first experiences that are powerful and easy to use. We are happy to see the increase of app usage especially for our 1PAY E-wallet thanks to the convenience of our fully integrated cashless digital payment system and wide array of services and exciting features in our SuperApp.
On top of this, residents at Effingham Bandar Utama, 9 Bukit Utama and 1 Bukit Utama in Bandar Utama are also able to pay for utilities like electricity bills to Bandar Utama City Corporation via 1 Utama’s SuperApp digitally.