Waiting In Checkout Lines A Turnoff To European Shoppers

By Judit Ruckes, APG Cash Drawer

For many European shoppers, waiting at checkout lines any longer than five minutes is too long, according to retail study by Adyen. Shoppers are looking for an experience that satisfies three fundamental demands: convenience, context and control.

Retailers, however, aren’t doing a stellar job of meeting expectations. For instance, while 38% of consumers don’t want to wait longer than five minutes in POS queues, only 28% of retailers so far have mobile point of sale (mPOS) technology at their stores or offer self-payment methods. And fewer than half of retailers (41%) say they want to provide customers with cutting-edge payment options.

The inability to meet expectations is costly, the study points out. In the 12 months prior to the study’s release, European retailers lost nearly €18 billion ($21 billion) in potential sales to competitors because long waits drove shoppers elsewhere to make purchases. Another €14 billion ($16 billion) was lost “because customers abandoned a purchase due to long queues and never made the purchase elsewhere.” Among consumers who prefer not to shop in brick-and-mortar stores, 41% say it’s because of queues.