More than 90% of retailers believe that they will have to change the high street experience over the next five years in order to compete with other purchasing options, according to a survey by retail IT support specialist Vista Support.
The survey looked at some of the reasons behind the slow adoption of contactless payments to-date.
Richard Olds, CEO, Vista Retail Support, said: “The success of online shopping shows that the current challenges of lack of awareness and transaction security faced by contactless can be overcome. More than half of business to consumer (B2C) firms surveyed already offer an online alternative, with 42% believing that a large majority of their customers now trust the online experience.”
The majority (60%) of retailers say that, to be successful, the high street will have to provide a combined on- and off-line shopping experience that is fast, effective and easy-to-use. This compares to only 24% who believe customers will not pay a price premium on the high street and 16% that the high street will have to offer an even better service.
The checkout currently provides the greatest source of customer frustration in-store, according to 76% of respondents, with only 6% believing that customers do not generally have a problem here. Reinforcing this, 65% believe that customers are less patient when queuing at the checkout than five years ago and is the most likely reason why customers switch loyalty to another store or purchasing method.
Source: Vista Support
