Fragmented Payment Systems Reduce Online Retail Sales By £207M In May

A study conducted by BR-DGE has found that UK online retail merchants could have increased weekly gross sales by £207 million last month if failed payments had not occurred.

The latest ONS retail data shows weekly online retail spending in May 2022 was £2.243 billion.

However, fragmented payments systems, put under increasing pressure by the massive growth in digital payments, can result in failed transactions and unprocessed baskets.

If payment systems had been more effective during May, weekly online spending would have reached £2.45 billion.

Furthermore, with intelligent routing and greater commercial leverage, online retailers could gain operating margins through payment orchestration platforms like BR-DGE.

“This latest set of figures will make for tough reading amongst hard-hit retailers who have been impacted by the double blows of increased costs and tightening consumer purse strings,” BR-DGE head of commercial Jacob Spencer.

“However, more positively for ecommerce businesses, the data shows that they could have generated around £207 million extra each week in May if the customer failed payments hadn’t taken place.”

“Online sales are a core part of UK retail’s recovery, but with 65% of retailers not receiving detailed failed payments data, many merchants are unaware of the impact that failed payments has on their business.

“BR-DGE technology allows online retailers visibility around their failed payments data and empowers retailers with a range of payment solutions for consumers via single API integration.

“Online retailers must prioritize finding payment solutions that integrate multiple providers and payment methods to avoid ongoing failures and support online shoppers with the technology to pay how they want.”