Holiday season plagues merchants with checkout problems

By Puja Sharma

Merchants are increasingly eager to explore new payment technologies in a bid to make their checkout experience more streamlined, secure, and reliable and as one way to gain a competitive advantage. Around three-quarters (73%) of merchants surveyed believe that adopting some of the newer ways to pay would help add value to their business.

The findings indicate that online businesses are losing millions due to surge-related issues at the checkout

The majority of online SMBs (small to medium size businesses) rely on seasonal business to keep them afloat, but around half (52%) say they have experienced checkout issues during these vital surge shopping periods, up from 43% in 2021. That’s according to new research with over 1,100 merchants in 12 countries commissioned by leading specialised payments platform Paysafe.

Almost three-quarters (74%) say the checkout continues to be a serious competitive advantage, perhaps in part due to the impact when things go wrong. Nearly a third (31%) of businesses who have experienced a surge-related issue with their checkouts lost upwards of $100,000 – with common issues including checkout system slowdown (46%), and a failure to authorise payments (31%).

Afshin Yazdian, President of Merchant Solutions at Paysafe, said, “During the holiday season, payment processing systems will be put to the test, highlighting the importance of payments efficiency as a business differentiator. Offering more payment methods allows merchants to gain an advantage by offering a frictionless customer experience, improve conversion rates and ultimately avoid losing business during their peak season.”

This problem takes on more significance if you consider the effort merchants make to get customers to the checkout stage in the first place. Nearly three quarters (74%) cite cart abandonment as an ongoing issue in 2022 (up from 69% in 2021) and 61% say abandonment has increased in the last 12 months (up from 49% in 2021). Technical issues including checkout screen crashes (14%) and customers being unable to pay with their preferred method (17%) were cited as expected reasons.

Merchants are increasingly eager to explore new payment technologies in a bid to make their checkout experience more streamlined, secure, and reliable and as one way to gain a competitive advantage. Around three-quarters (73%) of merchants surveyed believe that adopting some of the newer ways to pay would help add value to their business. Despite the interest in newer ways to pay, debit cards (75%) and credit cards (72%) continue to lead the table of payment processing methods offered.

Paulette Rowe, CEO of Integrated & Ecommerce Solutions at Paysafe, added, “As merchants across sectors brace themselves for holiday shopping spikes, many are looking to their payments partners to maintain operations and increase their success. Looking at the ways that consumer behaviour is changing, merchants with robust ecommerce activity must understand what consumers are expecting from their shopping experience and address these expectations proactively.”

Key Insights:

• The majority of online SMBs (small to medium size businesses) rely on seasonal business to keep them afloat,
• Almost three-quarters (74%) say the checkout continues to be a serious competitive advantage, perhaps in part due to the impact when things go wrong.
• his problem takes on more significance if you consider the effort merchants make to get customers to the checkout stage in the first place.
• Despite the interest in newer ways to pay, debit cards (75%) and credit cards (72%) continue to lead the table of payment processing methods offered.