Objectives

Most mobile wallets in the market continue to be unidimensional. Consequently, users have to toggle across multiple payment solutions, mobile wallets, and apps to manage their everyday payment needs.

In view of this, we developed capabilities on DBS PayLah!, DBS' industry-leading mobile wallet, to provide customers with a unified user experience that combines the functionalities of everyday payments/fund transfers, personalised deals and rewards, and credit/debit card management in one super app. Key features include:

• Ubiquity of payment – With DBS PayLah!, scan to pay at physical stores as well as utilise partner tiles on the app to pay online for services such hailing a taxi, ordering food, and booking entertainment options. Customers manage all their everyday payment needs in one app.
• P2P solutions – Peer-to-peer payment options include features such as DBS QR Gift and eGift, to send cash gifts virtually to loved ones during special occasions.
• Managing credit & debit cards – DBS has integrated the functionalities of its DBS Lifestyle app into DBS PayLah! to enable DBS customers to conduct even more everyday transactions through one unified app. These include being able to check their credit/debit card balance and spending history, using credit card points to offset expenditure on purchases, and checking out hypersonalised rewards and promotions curated specially for them by DBS.

Strategy and Execution

The DBS PayLah! app is a result of DBS Bank’s digital strategy to embrace technology and re-imagine the customer journey. The omnichannel customer journey engages customers through an interactive experience that allows them to enjoy a range of benefits tailored to their banking needs. 

For DBS PayLah!, growing our ecosystem partnerships is a key pillar of our overall strategy in the pursuit of our growth objective. By bringing on board a growing selection of partners and expanding our acceptance network, we offer our users unparalleled convenience in being able to access and pay for a wide selection of everyday services on the platform. DBS PayLah! users today can buy travel insurance, book movie tickets, order food delivery, pay bills and transport expenses, browse entertainment and dining offers, make fund transfers and scan to pay for their purchases at more than merchants in Singapore. Through the ubiquity of PayLah!, users can now satisfy their everyday payment and lifestyle needs with less hassle, with just a few taps on the app. At the same time, we provide our ecosystem partners with the means of connecting to a vibrant, active consumer base seamlessly. Please see visuals Screen 1 and Screen 2 for the overview.

The DBS PayLah! team collaborates with our in-house Data Science team to develop a unique algorithm to apply recommendation models to each customer group, ensuring that we serve hypersonalised content and offers for each customer based on their lifestyle preferences and needs. 

Personalised Card Deals: The app recommends exclusive credit/debit card offers and promotions based on a customer's location/proximity, past spending history, and past banking interactions.  Advanced Machine Learning models have been implemented in various ways to make the offers personalised and relevant for the customer, taking into account customer preferences in terms of merchants that they transact with, etc, the potential for a customer to diversify and grow expenditure, creating look-alike models for customers with limited spend history, etc.

Personalised Spend Tracker: Spend & win promotions are tailored based on customers' past spending behavior and the spend goals are personalized. One of the key elements is the Promotion Tracker feature which helps to eliminate several customer pain points of participating in bank promotions – customers can now check how many registration slots are left, join promotions curated especially for them, receive only relevant messages, track their spending progress and be rewarded with prizes instantly when they meet their spend goals.

Instant Rewards Redemption (Offset Spend): This feature enables flexibility and convenience for customers to use their credit/debit card points to offset recent purchases instantly, anywhere, anytime.

Apps on our smart phones are now an integral part of our daily micro-moments and the DBS PayLah! app has definitely enabled DBS to build a deeper relationship with our customers. It has helped us create a strong value proposition to differentiate ourselves from other similar offerings in the industry by providing a personalised experience for each individual customer throughout the entire customer journey.  

Results

1. We are on track to double our existing user base of more than 1.8 million to 3.5 million by 2023, and the number of new user sign-ups in Oct’20 grew by close to 40% as compared to the same period in 2019. 
2. The total value of our transactions for the same period (Oct’20 vs Oct’19) had also gone up by 40%, which can be attributed to greater daily usage of the app.
3. DBS PayLah! is integrated into multiple major payment rails in Singapore including PayNow QR, NETS QR, FavePay QR and Shopback Go, with more than 180,000 acceptance points island wide.
4. In fact, we observed a  more than double (132%) increase in the value of ‘scan to pay’ P2B transactions in Oct’20 vs Oct’19, which can be attributed to the fact that DBS PayLah! is now the most widely accepted payment method in Singapore.
5. The average ticket size has more than doubled, as we observed customers are now much more comfortable with, and find it convenient to use, DBS PayLah! for bigger purchases. They’ve moved from using DBS PayLah! for smaller ticket-sized items, such as for their hawker meals, to now paying for medical services or even university tuition fees.

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