- 83% of shoppers left a store due to an item they wanted being out of stock
- 61% of shoppers have opted to abandon in-store purchases due to long lines
- 51% of shoppers have given up on at least one online purchase due to not being able to use their preferred payment method
Poor service, checkout pain points and a lack of available stock are costing Australian retailers an estimated $71 billion in lost sales according to new research by payments platform Adyen.
Adyen surveyed more than 1,200 customers and 600 B2C retailers from the APAC region to discover what shoppers really feel about their shopping experiences and the impact it has on buyer behaviour.
The findings point to factors such as long queues, payment issues and stock shortages as major factors for abandoned sales, despite research suggesting half of all Australians prefer to buy in-store rather than online. Twenty-one per cent of shoppers surveyed said the ability to negotiate price and discounts is a key driver to shopping in-store. It’s a missed opportunity for retailers.
“Poor experiences from browsing to point of purchase are resulting in high levels of abandonment,” says Michel van Aalten, Adyen Country Manager ANZ. “For retailers this is more than a missed sale, it can be money reclaimed by a competitor or a purchase taken overseas to an international retailer.
“All of these results highlight a costly reality: that modern shoppers demand immediacy and convenience, and don’t want to hear the word no. They aren’t shy about negotiating or ditching a purchase altogether if they’re not happy with the experience. Despite technology being available that can enhance the customer retail experience, many brands are still slow to act on that digital opportunity,” says van Aalten.
A common source of in-store dissatisfaction continues to be long lines, a trend that was first highlighted by Adyen in 2018. Sixty-one per cent of shoppers said they abandoned an in-store purchase due to excessive queues, resulting in $13bn in abandoned sales annually.
Unsurprisingly, long lines jumped to a 68 per cent abandonment rate with Gen Y, who have grown up with the convenience of technology at their fingertips.
Additionally, more than half of all Aussies (51 per cent) abandoned an online purchase in the past six months due to the unavailability of their preferred payment method, resulting in an estimated $7bn in annual abandoned sales.
“The most important differentiators for retailers are the speed, ease and personalisation they can provide shoppers at the point of purchase and this demand is only increasing in the younger generations of shoppers,” says van Aalten.
“Whether in-store or online, today’s connected customers are asking more from retailers than ever before. The research revealed that creating positive shopping experiences could amount to a $21bn annual sales lift. When you factor this in, simply capitalising on this opportunity by building winning experiences and creating positive shopping experiences, what is currently a $71bn problem could easily become a $92bn opportunity for all retailers,” says van Aalten.
You can find the full Adyen 2019 Retail Research report here.
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