More than half (58 per cent) of retail businesses are losing revenue due to shortcomings with their payment gateway, according to new research.

A survey of 500 online payment professionals across five countries by emerchantpay found that two thirds of respondents were coming under increasing pressure from senior leaders to improve payments performance as a matter of urgency.

The survey showed that just 39 per cent of payments leaders felt that the wider business fully recognises the value of optimising payments performance, and only 35 per cent believe that business stakeholders fully understand the benefits of agile payments infrastructure.

The report also highlighted concerns that payments teams are hampered by a lack of data and insight to make decisions and optimise processes in their payments ecosystems.

More than three quarters (79 per cent) of retail payments leaders reported that analysing payments data is a challenge within their organisation – a higher proportion than in any other sector.

Payments security is also a concern, with only 26 per cent of payments leaders in the retail sector fully satisfied with their current ability to monitor fraud in real-time.

Other barriers to improving payments performance in retail are the burden of regulation and compliance obligations, which are becoming an increasing drain on resources (44 per cent), lack of budget or cost issues (36 per cent), finding appropriate partners or vendors (31 per cent) and outdated technology and tools (25 per cent).

Jonas Reynisson, chief executive of emerchantpay, said: “This research proves that too many retailers are ‘leaving money on the table’ by not offering their customers the fastest, easiest, most personalised payment experiences possible and by not fully understanding, detecting and preventing fraud.

“Retailers have to start providing payments leaders with the tools, skills and support to do their jobs effectively and to deliver real value to the organisation – the opportunity for businesses that can put in place the processes, technologies and behaviours necessary to optimise payments performance are huge.”

Share Story: