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s part of its effort to promote online shopping in Indonesia, MasterCard Indonesia launched on Thursday an e-commerce program in cooperation with 14 members of the Indonesian E-Commerce Association (idEA) to help customers get used to the idea of paying online.

Under the program, customers of the 14 online shopping merchants, including Bhinneka.com, Groupon Indonesia and Livingsocial Indonesia will be able to use their MasterCards to pay for their online purchases.

MasterCard Indonesia country manager Irni Palar said the program was a form of commitment to supporting Bank Indonesia'€™s program of creating a '€œless cash society'€, by developing and maturing the potential of e-commerce in Indonesia.

'€œIndonesia saw a 30 to 40 percent growth in online transaction volume from 2012-2013, most of which come from the younger generation,'€ Irni told reporters at a media event on Thursday.

She revealed that e-commerce in Indonesia amounted to US$5 billion in 2014. Irni expressed her hope that the online shopping experience would spur the use of credit cards in online purchases, which at present accounts for only 10 percent of all e-commerce transactions.

Bank Indonesia'€™s (BI) payment system executive director Rosmaya Hadi said that there were more than 15 million credit cards in circulation in Indonesia as of March this year, with a daily average of 656,682 purchases totaling Rp 630.4 billion ($53.4 million) in value.

BI has forecast growth of around 20-25 percent in the volume and business value of credit cards in the country this year.

According to an online shopping behavioral study conducted by MasterCard, 37.9 percent of Indonesia'€™s online transactions still use cash as the payment method of choice, followed by bank transfers at 27.5 percent.

The survey, which was conducted in 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, found that around 92 percent of respondents indicated convenience, speed of transaction and security as the three deciding factors in online purchases.

The same study revealed that 83.9 percent of respondents chose to shop online because of the special deals available, such as discounts and free shipping. Additionally, online shopping has increased due to the high costs associated with physical retail, such as time and money spent en route to a mall or shop.

'€œIn addition to establishing e-payment systems with the merchants, we hope to mobilize the widespread use of debit cards,'€ Irni said.

She said there were currently 35 million MasterCard debit cards in circulation in the country in 2013, compared to 15 million credit cards. She hopes the partnership program with idEA will result in a 40 percent increase in transaction value.

Citing Communications and Information Ministry data, Irni said that total e-commerce transactions increased by 54 percent in 2013 to Rp 130 trillion, up from Rp 69 trillion in 2012.

MasterCard is confident that the total transaction value of e-commerce will grow by a further 71 percent to Rp 223 trillion this year.

Meanwhile, idEA vice chairman Agus Tjandra said he estimated the number of online buyers would increase from 4 million in 2013 to 5.7 million in 2014, with a total transaction volume of $5 billion. Hotel bookings, airline ticket sales and travel agency sales would account for about 80 percent of this figure.

Agus predicted that there would be a 500 percent surge in transaction volume to $25 billion in 2016, with 8.2 million online customers. There were currently 75 million Internet users in Indonesia, he added.

'€œThe growth of e-commerce is immense. If you aren'€™t taking part in e-commerce five years from now, you'€™ll be very sorry. That is how I see e-commerce in the future; it'€™s a lifestyle,'€ he said.