Reasons for customers reluctance to use electronic payments – A study in Ho Chi Minh City

This study aims to investigate reasons why customers are reluctant to use e-payment and how these reasons explain their impacted values, with the following research objectives: (1) to identify characteristics of electronic payment generating the resistance of customers to this E-payment; (2) to explore the connections between those characteristics and values of individuals through the consequences of these characteristics; (3) to propose suggestions for service providers and financial institutes to develop appropriate strategic plans to motivate e-payment in Vietnam. To address these research objectives, the means-end chain (MEC) theory is employed with hard laddering interviews as data collection methods. Then, the collected data are analyzed by the Association Pattern Technique (APT) and used to build the Hierarchical Value Map (HVM). The HVM indicates five main reasons which bar customers from using e-payment: (1) lack of information about e-payment and its benefits, (2) security vulnerabilities in online payment systems, (3) unavailability of legal laws to protect e-payment users, (4) unpopularity of e-payment, and (5) transaction fees and no discount for e-payment. The Value map also revealed that Safety is the most crucial value explaining why most customers are unwilling to use e-payment. Besides, the respondents also care about the Economy and the Convenience of e-payment. From these findings, the study offers some suggestions for banks and service providers to increase the popularity of e-payments.