COVID-19 predicted to cause over a 6% global downturn on ecommerce payments - study

The US is worst hit, losing USD 15 billion last year to false declines, followed by the UK (USD 2.3 billion),  Germany (USD 1.7 billion) and France (USD 1.3 billion). This is money businesses can’t afford to lose, with Covid-19 predicted to cause an average global downturn of 6%. And these losses will increase unless action is taken. The volume of online payments is growing as consumer habits change due to the pandemic. 

The research shows that more than two thirds (65%) of merchants don’t receive the data that tells them when, why and how customer payments have been declined, stopping them from even beginning to address their payment inefficiencies. While only 50% of businesses have a clear payment strategy that is understood across their business, the businesses that prioritise payments are reaping the benefits.  Super high growth companies, those growing at more than 40% year on year, are more likely to have an authorisation rate of 96-100% than other businesses surveyed.

The research, the largest ever of its kind, conducted by Oxford Economics on behalf of Checkout.com, is based on 5,000 consumers and 1,500 merchants across the US, UK, France and Germany, as well as qualitative interviews with payments leadership from brands such as Microsoft, Uber, Airbnb, Deliveroo, TransferWise and Scribd.