UK: retailers risk international revenue loss due to red tape, high charges

Moreover, three quarters of businesses cited in-country regulations (73%) and high charges (77%) as the main barriers to offering additional payment options to international shoppers, according to research data commissioned by the payments processor PPRO Group.

Nearly one in ten (8%) retailers admits that, between 31% and 51% of all transactions come from international customers. With familiar overseas payment options including iDEAL, SEPA Direct Debit and SOFORTbanking starting to find a home on UK-based sites, adoption levels are still relatively low with 23%, 42% and 46% adoption rates, respectively.

Tobias Schreyer, co-founder of The PPRO Group commented that, although UK retailers are aware of customer payments preference worldwide, red tape and additional charges are putting pay to many retailers offering the payment preferences of international customers, as well as UK-specific payment preferences like credit and debit card.

Up to 10% of international customers abandon their basket at the point of payment, according to almost half of those surveyed (43%), with the payment page cited as the reason in 42% of the cases. However, when it comes to online shopping priorities, retailers put more emphasis on security than the loss of revenue caused by shopping cart abandonment, with 85% considering customer security to be a high priority, compared to abandonment of shopping carts which tops the list for just over half (54%) of the respondents.