Digital goods and services: A win-win for consumers and businesses

Hi everyone!

Do you remember going to a retail store to buy a gift card? I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found the process tiresome and time-consuming. Today, technology has made this process so much simpler. With a few taps on a mobile app, I can purchase a digital gift card anytime, anywhere, and share it online with a recipient in seconds.

And it isn’t just gift cards that are going virtual; many other forms of goods AND services – from mobile data top-ups to household bills have been digitalised, making it easier for consumers to access them.

Digital goods and services is a massive and fast-growing sector. The global digital gift card market, for example, is expected to hit US$724.3 billion by 2028, according to a 2022 ReportLinker report.

The benefits for consumers are clear; consolidating all digital goods onto a single touchpoint offers unparalleled convenience. This is particularly pertinent for Southeast Asia, where there is a high volume of unbanked consumers and where internet accessibility, for many, is mobile-first.

Brick-and-mortar retail stands to gain a competitive advantage, too. Store owners can complement their physical product sales by offering virtual goods such as gaming credits and prepaid mobile top-ups. It provides a lot of value-add and yet is easy on the accounts; no expensive equipment or extra space is required; all store owners need is a smartphone or a dedicated POS terminal that could disburse digital goods efficiently.

Our work at 2C2P takes us to a variety of merchants — from local warungs and sari-saris to large enterprises. No matter the size of merchants, our digital goods platform, which aggregates digital goods providers and billers, has demonstrated clear value and enabled them to improve the efficiency of their business processes – and incentivise customers to patronise their stores more often.

In our forthcoming 20th anniversary ebook, “Cracking the Payments Code”, we will explore the history and mechanisms of digital goods and how 2C2P ventured into the sector. Stay tuned for more updates!

Warm regards,

Aung Kyaw Moe

Founder & CEO, 2C2P

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