Long queues costing retailers up to £12bn a year, Adyen

Long queues are the biggest turn-off for UK shoppers, according to research by Adyen.

The PayTech commissioned a report with 451 Research that surveyed 1,000 UK consumers and 100 senior decision makers. It found that retailers lost £6.4 billion in the past year as customers went to a competitor to make a purchase because the queues in their store were too long. An additional £5.6 billion was lost by shoppers abandoning purchases altogether due to this issue. 77% of respondents said anything longer than five minutes is too long to wait in line to buy something.

“Technology is constantly pushing the boundaries of how we shop, and customer expectations are changing fast,” says Myles Dawson, UK Managing Director at Adyen. “Successful retailers are adapting to meet these new demands, while those failing to evolve are suffering – as headlines show us. Price wars simply won’t cut it; there will always be a cheaper alternative somewhere else. The real battleground is customer experience. And our survey shows that there are huge opportunities for retailers to differentiate themselves by addressing simple pain-points like queuing.”

He adds: “Retailers need to harness the combined strength of their online and offline channels. This means connecting the two seamlessly, so customers can browse and make purchases in store or get all the information they need to make a purchase online or by mobile later. When it comes to finally closing that sale, customers should be able to pay quickly and easily, using their preferred payment method.”