Have you ever received the wrong gift and didn’t know what to do with it? Or spent days finding the right gifts for all your friends and family?

Gifting, and being on the receiving end of that, can raise stress levels during the festive seasons when things are supposed to be solemn and easy-going.

While gift vouchers are popular go-to options for those of us who do not want to fuss over picking out presents, the repeated process of physical purchases and collection of these gift vouchers can still prove to be a hassle.

Will there ever be a magic bullet to resolve these gifting challenges? Is the use of QR codes going to make our lives easier? We caught up with Jonathan Yap, Head of Intelligent Banking, Consumer Banking Group Singapore, DBS, to find out what QR gifting is all about.

Could you tell us what inspired the QR Gift and how it works?

Before the launch of QR Gift, we conducted a customer immersion exercise to find out what matters when it comes to giving out red packets. Many people shared that they still thought the physical act of giving is important. Some voiced their concerns that the lack of a physical red packet will result in their loved ones not paying them a visit during the new year. The gifting of red packets also symbolises blessings and goodwill offered by married couples to the younger generation, and represents filial piety when given to older family members.

Aligned with our Smart Nation’s cashless agenda, we were inspired to introduce the QR Gift. It offers a fun twist to the tradition of red packet exchange, allowing DBS PayLah! users to continue the traditional act of giving and receiving red packets, while eliminating the need for cash. Givers can scan the unique QR codes and load a cash value of up to S$999. Receivers can then scan these QR codes to receive the amount with the DBS PayLah! app with a heartfelt message from the giver.

There are still many people who practise gifting cash. What has been some of the interesting feedback you received about the QR Gift?

One customer shared how the QR Gift can prevent the loss of cash. She recalled how her relative fell asleep on the bus and had her red packets stolen. With the QR Gift, any loss or wrong transaction can be traced and reported if it’s redeemed by an unintended recipient.

We will also be rolling out new QR Gift cards in January 2020 with a generic design that can be used for all festivities, substituting the need for physical cash gifting.

Since many givers tend to be from the older generation, how would you convince them to use the QR Gift Card instead of cash?

DBS has been conducting digital outreach programmes to share more about digital banking with the older generation and how to integrate digital technology in their everyday activities. We’re also working on improving assistance for the elderly to enhance their banking experience, making it simpler and more seamless, and in turn — encourage more of them to go cashless.

What are your views on the co-existence of culture (e.g. practice of giving red packets) and sustainability?

In the age of technological advancements, it is definitely vital to preserve these traditions. For the practice of giving red packets, we see the end goal as going completely digital with eGift, currently known as eAngBao which is an existing function on PayLah!. The QR Gift would be an incremental approach to bridge the meaningful tradition of the physical giving with the future of fully-digital, cashless way of gifting.

In addition, the design of our upcoming QR Gift Card eliminates the need for red packets and new notes collection. This reduces our carbon footprint and the need for additional resources, ultimately saving Mother Earth in the process.

What are some QR Gift Card enhancements we can look forward to?

We garnered feedback from our customers in the pilot that was rolled out during Chinese New Year in 2019, and improved user experience for the next Chinese New Year. These include improvements to the loading and redemption function, which will make giving and receiving of QR Gifts much easier.

With the upcoming festive seasons, how would you encourage people to take part in more sustainable ways of giving?

In 2020, our focus is to raise more awareness among the public to switch to QR Gift. This reduces the use of physical cash and red packets for all festive seasons, as well as minimises the hassle of picking out presents for special occasions.

We also encourage our users to recycle the QR Gift cards and festive packets by dropping them off at the recycling bins located at all DBS/POSB branches.

Lastly, which other gift(s) do you predict will get displaced by its digital form in the future?

Vouchers are probably another form of gift that can take on a fully-digital form in the future. Although there are digital vouchers available today, physical vouchers are still widely issued and used in the market. We can definitely look forward to more innovative ways of gifting.

DBS QR Ang Baos, the world’s first loadable QR red packets, were launched on 25 January 2019 to strong public interest. The bank recorded more than SGD 1.5 million being loaded onto DBS QR Ang Bao within the first three weeks. The evolution of the QR red packets to QR Gifts continues to offer a fun, digital twist to the traditional way of gifting money while eliminating the use of cash.

The QR Gifts were also given to those who participated in the prototype validation during the DBS Paradigm Shift, the bank’s first global hackathon to uncover new solutions for the future of banking.