In the countdown to Black Friday, many retail businesses are struggling to maximise revenue during the seasonal holiday boom in online shopping, according to payments platform Paysafe. Research commissioned by the company reveals that 36 per cent of retailers regularly experience online checkout issues when they have large customer volumes, while 43 per cent struggle to maintain their online checkout during the holidays.
The independent survey in October 2021 of 900 businesses in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Austria and Bulgaria, was commissioned by Paysafe for its annual Lost in Transaction research report on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which will be released in full in early December.
The third-party survey data shows the importance of preparation ahead of the holiday shopping season for companies with online commerce operations. The data sheds light on how business leaders across verticals view consumer spending behaviour, the role of payments providers and what the checkout process must have to increase success, with the following takeaways:
- Holiday shopping spikes are crucial to keeping a business afloat, but many would prefer an alternative solution – Over two-thirds of merchants (68 per cent) agree that festive shopping periods are important for their annual revenues. However, 61 per cent of merchants shared that they would prefer a more balanced demand over the whole year, as opposed to surges at defined points throughout the year.
- A failure at checkout during a busy period would make merchants strongly consider changing payments partners – 67 per cent of merchants in the US have considered this, and 41 per cent say they’ve actually done so.
- The online checkout process is top of mind for concerned businesses – In the past, 43 per cent of merchants said they’ve experienced an issue with their online checkout with over-activity during surge shopping periods. Over half (51 per cent) of businesses believe that due to difficulties in tracking customer spending patterns, the checkout must be scalable.
Paulette Rowe, CEO of Integrated & eCommerce Solutions at Paysafe, commented: “As merchants across sectors brace themselves for holiday shopping spikes, many are looking to their payments partners in order to maintain operations and increase their success. Looking at the ways that consumer behaviour is changing, it’s crucial for merchants with robust eCommerce activity to understand what consumers are expecting from their shopping experience and address these expectations proactively.”
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