President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), the operator of the nation’s largest convenience store chain, yesterday said it aims to increase its non-cash payment penetration from 18 percent to 25 percent next year by launching credit card payments at its outlets nationwide.
PCSC is scheduled to finish the installation of credit card machines at its 1,700 7-Eleven stores in the greater Taipei area by the end of this year through a collaboration with Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行), it said.
PCSC, which has nearly 5,200 outlets in Taiwan, would expand card payment services to all of its local stores in January next year at the earliest, the company said.
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
The effort to promote credit card services comes as the company seeks to provide more payment options to Taiwanese customers, PCSC president Ray Chen (陳瑞堂) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday, adding that electronic payment services have begun to gain wide acceptance in the nation.
So far this year, PCSC has seen transactions via non-cash payment methods — such as icash cards, Alipay (支付寶) and Apple Pay — total more than NT$26 billion (US$866.15 million), a 20 percent increase from the same period last year, company data showed.
The company’s latest move was also in line with the government’s target of increasing use of electronic payments to 90 percent of overall transactions by 2025, Cathay United Bank president Alan Lee (李偉正) said.
Apart from satisfying customer demand, the convenience store chain’s ongoing project to popularize credit card services also aims to boost transaction revenue at its outlets.
Average revenue per transaction via credit card payments is expected to be six times higher than via cash payments, as people prefer to buy big items without paying cash to avoid risks, Chen said, citing preorder products and high-priced home appliances offered at 7-Eleven stores.
PCSC declined to give a detailed sales target for its non-cash payment sector, but said it would cooperate with more local banks to broaden its credit card services over the coming year.
From January through last month, PCSC saw its cumulative revenue increase 2.32 percent to NT$184.22 billion from NT$180.04 billion during the same period last year — a rise that it primarily attributed to stable growth in its core business.
PCSC shares gained 0.18 percent to close at NT$276 on the main board before the announcement yesterday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”