We are currently living in a time where digital finance conversations are dominated by wallets, apps, and these so-called “invisible transactions”.

Something that is so seamless, we hardly see or feel it.

But these immaculate processes made it so easy for us to forget that most payments still end the same way, most of the time.

A customer stands in front of a merchant. A screen is turned. A card, phone, or QR code comes out. Then only will the process be completed.

The interaction lasts just seconds, but little did we know that it often defines how the entire experience is remembered.

That moment, according to Sam Su, Rotating Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Sunmi, deserves far more attention than it gets.

“What they need is not only good products, but good experience,” Sam said during a conversation at Singapore Fintech Festival.

And for many consumers, that experience is shaped most clearly at the point of payment.

Now, it is an overall simple idea, but one that challenges how much of the fintech industry thinks about progress.

Innovation is often framed around what happens inside software, within apps and platforms that promise to make payments disappear altogether. Sam’s view is more grounded.

The physical layer of payments, the devices and workflows merchants rely on every day, still plays a decisive role in shaping trust, convenience, and adoption.

When Paying Was the Worst Part of Shopping

To understand why payment hardware still matters, Sam first went back to how transactions used to work.

In retail, customers would browse, ask questions, compare options, and then be sent to a separate counter to pay.

In restaurants, cards were handed over, taken away, returned with receipts, and followed by awkward tip calculations.

The purchase itself might have been enjoyable, but the final step often felt clunky and disconnected from the rest of the experience.

Those extra steps were once tolerated. Today, they feel out of place.

“What they need is not only good products, but [also], good experience,” Sam said.

Friction at the point of payment now stands out sharply, especially in environments where speed and convenience are taken for granted. Restaurants are a good example of how that shift is already playing out.

Mobile POS devices have moved the transaction back to the table, keeping the customer in control and removing unnecessary steps.

Instead of walking to a counter or handing over a card, the payment happens where the customer is. The experience feels smoother, more natural, and ends on a positive note.

The improvement is emotional and not just operational.

When the last interaction goes well, the entire visit is remembered more fondly.

A Fragmented Payment World, By Design

But while improving payment experience sounds plain and simple, the reality is far more complex.

“Globally, the payment method [has] become so diverse,” Sam said.

He pointed to stark differences across regions. In parts of Africa, USSD-based mobile money remains essential infrastructure. In China, QR payments dominate everyday transactions.

Elsewhere, particularly in more mature markets, card-based systems still hold sway.

What comes to shock us is that Southeast Asia does not follow just one of these models.

Instead, it reflects elements of all of them, shaped by local regulation, consumer behaviour, and levels of digital maturity across different markets.

This diversity is often framed as a challenge but Sam sees it as a reality that businesses must design around rather than fight against.

For Sunmi, that means avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach.

The goal of the company is not to push a single payment method, but to support whichever options consumers and merchants find most convenient.

“Whatever [that] make[s] the consumer more convenient, it’s what we should adapt,” Sam said.

In Southeast Asia, that philosophy has not resulted in a single dominant model replacing all others.

Instead, one method emerged as the most practical common layer across very different markets.

Why QR took off in Southeast Asia

QR payments did not take off in Southeast Asia because the region lacked alternatives.

They took off because they worked across a fragmented landscape.

“I think in South Asia, firstly, the biggest influence is QR,” Sam said, referring to the broader Southeast Asian region.

QR offered a rare balance. It lowered costs and hardware requirements for merchants, and allowed consumers to stick with the devices they already owned.

For governments, it supported broader financial inclusion goals without requiring heavy infrastructure investment.

“The countries in South Asia is promoting this method because it’s reducing the cost [for] the merchants and [it’s] also very convenient for the consumers,” Sam said.

In fact, for many small businesses, QR was the first step into digital payments. It required little upfront investment and worked with devices merchants already owned.

But QR’s success did not eliminate the need for other payment methods.

Better yet, it raised expectations.

Once merchants and consumers became comfortable with cashless transactions, the next question was no longer whether to go digital, but how to make payments even smoother.

The Return of Tap-to-Pay But With a Twist

That is where tap-to-pay enters the picture.

Unlike earlier waves of contactless payments, today’s tap-to-pay adoption is being driven less by banks and more by software platforms already embedded in merchant operations.

Ordering systems, inventory tools, and point-of-sale software increasingly come with payments built in.

“[These] SaaS companies are actually, naturally servicing the merchant in a very seamless way,” Sam said.

Because these platforms already sit at the heart of daily operations, adding payments becomes a natural extension rather than a separate decision.

The result is faster adoption, particularly among merchants that value simplicity.

Yet phone-based acceptance, where merchants use their own smartphones to accept payments, has its limits.

“When you use your own phone, the consumer feel a little bit weird to tap the card on that,” Sam said.

There are practical concerns too.

First, a lot of merchants do not want to pass their personal phones to customers.

Secondly, it’s a bit of a nuisance to manage battery life during peak hours and not to forget, they could also risk some sort of interruptions during payment from calls, messages and worse, lack of internet connectivity.

As a result, Sam pointed out that many merchants still prefer some sort of a dedicated hardware to carry out the process.

Hardware Consolidation Still Matters

The appeal of modern payment devices is not just about trust or professionalism. It is also, quite simply, about cost.

“In terms of TOC, for sure, it’s much lower,” Sam said, referring to total cost of ownership.

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For a long time, that cost was driven by how fragmented merchant systems were.

One device handled business operations such as ordering or inventory. Another was dedicated purely to payments.

Each came with its own hardware expense, software contracts, and maintenance overhead.

“Before you still need two device[s]. Now, the two device[s] become one,” Sam said.

Bringing those functions together does more than reduce the number of devices on a counter. It simplifies integration, shortens training time for staff, and removes points of friction in daily operations.

For small and medium-sized businesses operating on thin margins, those efficiencies add up quickly.

It follows the same logic that helped QR payments gain traction in Southeast Asia. Lower barriers, fewer moving parts, and systems that fit how merchants actually work.

But consolidation also changes the role of the device itself.

When a single terminal becomes responsible for both operations and payments, expectations rise.

“In the business environment, you need your device to be used in like three, five years,” Sam said.

That requirement sets business hardware apart from consumer electronics, which are often replaced every couple of years.

Merchants are not looking for the latest model. They expect stability, consistent software support, and security they can rely on over time.

This matters even more in payments, where compliance standards and security requirements leave little room for error.

Devices cannot simply just work for today. They have to keep working, reliably and securely, years down the line.

Beyond Terminals, Toward Infrastructure

One of the clearest messages from Sam was how Sunmi views its role in the ecosystem.

“A lot of people [are] calling themselves payment terminal provider. We don’t do that,” he said. “We’re positioning ourselves as a B-IoT provider.”

The distinction reflects how offline commerce actually works. Merchants do not just need a way to accept payments.

They need an entire set of tools to run their businesses, from POS systems and kiosks to mobile devices for staff.

“[If you want to] digitalise every processes of the merchant, you need to provide not only one payment machine. You need to provide all the infrastructure[s] [that] the merchant need,” Sam said.

Managing that complexity at scale requires more than hardware. It requires software, cloud connectivity, and the ability to update, customise, and monitor devices remotely.

“All of our devices can be managed by one cloud,” Sam said, describing how merchants and partners can control fleets of devices from a single platform.

In fragmented offline environments, this kind of infrastructure approach allows different partners, whether SaaS providers, fintech companies, or delivery platforms, to build services on top of a common foundation.

The Physical Side of Digital Finance

As digital payments continue to evolve, it is tempting to believe that physical infrastructure will matter less over time. Sam’s perspective suggests the opposite.

Offline merchants still anchor everyday commerce.

And the devices that sit on counters, tables, and kiosks remain critical touchpoints between businesses and customers.

The future of digital payments, it turns out, is not just about what happens in apps or on the cloud. It is also about what happens in those final few seconds, face to face, when a transaction is completed.

And for many businesses, that moment still depends on what sits on the counter.

Want to hear Sam explain it in his own words? Watch the full conversation is in the video below.