Survey: payment choices drive 76% of consumer exits

A study conducted by Applause, a company that specialises in testing customer journeys across digital platforms, has found that 76% of consumers are likely to abandon transactions if their preferred payment method is not accepted.

The survey, which involved 6,700 participants including consumers, software developers, and QA professionals, aimed to gauge digital payment and localisation preferences and challenges.

The survey revealed that 68% of consumers prefer using mobile and digital wallets for transactions. However, only 56% of service providers currently accept these payment methods. Payment issues have been a significant barrier, with 41% of respondents stating that they were unable to complete a purchase within the last three months due to such issues. This has had a notable negative impact on retailers and other businesses.

In addition to payment preferences, the study also explored localisation challenges. It found that 52% of consumers had abandoned an app due to poor localisation, including inaccuracies in translation, erroneous assumptions about local knowledge, and misspellings. Specifically, 48% of app responses reportedly used incorrect words or syntax, 40% assumed local knowledge unfamiliar to users, and 38% contained misspellings.

Despite developers' efforts to adapt customer journeys and checkout processes to regional and cultural norms, many are still falling short of user expectations. The survey highlighted that 66% of organisations are working on such adaptability, but over half (59%) rely on in-house developers and QA staff who are native speakers to test the apps. This method, often referred to as "dogfooding," is seen as limiting coverage and introducing bias.

“Choice and speed are top of mind for consumers. If they can’t quickly make a purchase with their preferred payment method, they’re not going to continue on with the experience,” said Luke Damian, Chief Growth Officer at Applause. He pointed out the complexity of the digital payments landscape, emphasising that beyond transaction processing, developers must consider aspects like returns, exchanges, receipts, and rewards programs. “Every aspect of the customer journey is an opportunity to drive customer satisfaction and retention, which is why expanding test coverage through crowdtesting is so critical,” he added.

Highlighting successful case studies, Damian noted, “Innovators like Accor, one of the world's largest hospitality brands, come to Applause for payments and localisation expertise and experience high ROI. Community-based testing ensures the user experience is optimal, no matter where their customers are located or what payment instrument is used."

Rmi Lakmeche, VP E-Commerce Engineering at Accor, echoed this sentiment, stating, “As an international business, Accor relies on Applause to ensure customers all over the world can seamlessly book and pay for hotels through our e-commerce platform. Applause’s global community of digital experts enables us to perform live payments testing in real scenarios with real payment instruments, so we can identify and address potential issues quickly. It gives us a high level of confidence about the quality of our product to our customers."