Digitalization is indeed beneficial for micro-enterprises or petty traders to improve efficiency

and competitiveness especially during this Covid-19 crisis, need to cope with varying levels
of lockdowns and implementation of the circuit breaker by the government. The
Entrepreneurship Development and Cooperatives Ministry disclosed that there is 32,469
small medium enterprises (SMEs) have been folded since the first implementation of the
movement control order (MCO) [ CITATION Tar20 \l 1033 ]. Also, 70% of SMEs reported a
50% drop in business within a week of the MCO [ CITATION Azr20 \l 1033 ]. Hence, the
contrasting trajectories between online and offline economic activities show that it is
significant for SMEs to join in the digital economy if they are to survive in the post-COVID
world.

Research by Workday found that only 25% of SMEs have accelerated their digital
transformation due to the pandemic, remaining 60% of SMEs have slowed down [ CITATION
Mal201 \l 17417 ]. One of the challenges that hold back micro-enterprise from digital payment
is fraud and theft prevention. Many petty traders such as food court operators and night
markets still prefer the feeling of touchable cash payments, as they feel more secure when
accepting the physical notes [ CITATION Jan20 \l 17417 ]. Many of them find it hard to swap to
digital payment by adapting to contactless payment. They are being afraid of falling a victim
to scams causing hard-earned money will be taken away by the fraudsters.

Meanwhile, the key reason for micro SMEs fail to adopt digital payments due to the owners
received little education causing a lack of knowledge on how to go online, who they should
approach, said Director of Merchants of Boost, Eric Chong [ CITATION Aza21 \l 1033 ]. Small
businesses like hawkers or market traders especially for older generation with low level of
education feel insecure when dealing with things involving digital equipment. They feel less
confident to adopt digital payments because they have no or too little experience on
technology filed. Therefore, they were reluctant to adopt cashless payments till today.
However, cashless payment is the safest option to prevent the virus from spreading.