Accepting credit sales as a payment method has become more common among Taiwanese enterprises, according to the results of a survey released recently.
About 93 percent of Taiwan’s enterprises permitted credit sales last year, up 9 percentage points from 2010, according to the results of a survey conducted by the Coface Group, a worldwide credit insurance and management service group.
More than 17 percent of the companies reported an increase in total credit sales, with 52 percent reporting that credit sales made up more than 75 percent of their total sales.
In addition, confidence that customers would pay debts rebounded, with nearly 30 percent of companies showing optimism last year, compared with only 2 percent in 2009, the results showed.
Meanwhile, the number of companies forced to adopt credit sales because customers were short of funds decreased over the past three years, from 16.8 percent in 2009 to 6.3 percent last year.
Coface deputy CEO for the Asia-Pacific region Richard Burton attributed Taiwanese companies’ rising credit sales to their increaed confidence in customers, as well as their attempts to remain competitive.
However, Taiwanese companies’ credit risk mechanism setups and management tools were also the most comprehensive, he said.
Taiwanese companies had the region’s shortest average overdue days and the lowest overdue amount in total sales, he said.
The survey, conducted from October to December last year, received 824 valid responses from enterprises of various sizes, years of incorporation and industry sectors.
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