PROFITABILITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION LEVEL: EVIDENCE OF DIGITAL PAYMENT IMPACTS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The pandemic effects were really devastating to most of the MSMEs worldwide. The widespread effect has made MSMEs close their establishments, while others have taken advantage of the new trends in business tactics with the pandemic going on. Thus, this study examined the effects of MSMEs' adoption of digital payment as one of their strategies to increase their sales and its effect on customer satisfaction. Digital payment is limited only to G-cash, PayMaya, Debit, and credit cards. We have used a descriptive research design and purposive sampling. Moreover, Percentage and Frequency Analysis was used to analyze our data. Our findings turned out that 86% of MSMEs preferred G-cash and 72% did not indicate which banking cards are preferred. Also, the profit margin during the pandemic was 0.61, which is higher than the mean value of the profit margin before the pandemic, which is 0.59. For customer satisfaction, the results show that trust and security, along with convenience and reliability are neutral to high with a mean of 4.13, 3.93, and 2.96 respectively. Overall, this study concludes that there is no significant difference between the profitability of MSMEs before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the customers will continue using the digital payment system because they have experienced its benefits of it. Therefore, with the advancement of our contemporary times, it is ideal for MSMEs to be dynamic, and flexible instead of stagnant. Now more than ever, MSMEs must always be open to changes - anything that would benefit the business at large.