Audio payment alerts help small businesses go cashless with confidence

"VND60,000 (US$2.3) received," a speaker announces at a crowded Hanoi shop as a customer tucks away his phone and leaves.

It is enough to assure Hoa, the shopkeeper, that the payment has reached her bank account without having to pull out her phone to check. She continues to serve other customers.

A transaction speaker is seen at a food shop in Ha Dong District, Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Luu Quy

The 60-year-old vendor has been selling food at Ha Dong Market for two decades. The growing popularity of cashless payment in recent years persuaded her to print out a QR code for customers to make payment electronically.

But there were times in the past when a customer would leave without paying or make an incorrect transfer, resulted in a loss for the busy shop owner.

"The speaker saves me from fumbling with my phone," Hoa says.

"Customers may need to wait a few seconds to hear the confirmation message, but they have gotten used to it."

The notification devices first appeared in Vietnam about a year ago, and have soared in popularity this year.

The compact speakers connect wirelessly with a management software or an e-wallet app to record successful transactions and announce them in Vietnamese in real time.

In HCMC, Huynh Minh, the owner of a grocery store, struggled with fake transfers until a year ago when fraudsters would show him an image on their phone purporting to show a successful transfer without carrying out any such transaction.

"I used to have to verify hundreds of transactions daily, which annoyed some customers," he says.

But the new voice confirmation has helped resolve the problem, he says, adding: "It reduces fraud risks and saves time. I wish I had known of this solution sooner."

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh reviews transaction speakers at an event in 2025. Photo by Nhu Y

Vendors can choose from various providers, including banks like MBank and Techcombank, financial apps like MoMo, Vnpay and 9Pay and sales service companies, with the system including speaker costing only a few hundred thousand dong (VND100,000 = US$3.87).

This affordable tool has become a go-to for small businesses, easing their transition to digital payments.

MoMo, an e-wallet company and pioneer in offering the audio confirmation boxes, says the concept arose from the practical requirement of shop owners to confirm they got payments without constantly checking their phones.

Manually verifying or photographing transfer screens wastes vendors’ time and risks errors and fraud, it said.

Experts praise the compact devices saying they dovetail with Vietnam’s push toward digital transformation and cashless payments and demonstrate that modernization does not always require hefty investments or operational overhauls.

The total value of cashless transactions in 2023 was 23 times GDP, according to the State Bank of Vietnam.