Retailers believe high street needs to enhance its combined on-line and off-line offer
A new survey has found that 92% of retailers believe that the high street experience will need to change over the next five years in order to compete with other purchasing options.
The survey by Vista Retail Support looked at some of the reasons behind the slow adoption of contactless payments to-date.
Richard Olds, Vista CEO, 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 firms surveyed already offer an online alternative, with 42% believing that a large majority of their customers now trust the online experience.”
60% of the retailers surveyed said that to be successful the high street would 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 thought that customers would not pay a price premium on the high street and 16% who thought that the high street would have to offer an even better service.
Never Miss a Retail Update!According to 76% of respondents, the checkout currently provides the greatest source of customer frustration in-store, with only 6% believing that customers do not generally have a problem here. Reinforcing this, 65% believed that customers are less patient when queuing at the checkout than five years ago and that this was the most likely reason why customers switched loyalty to another store or purchasing method.
Olds added: “This clearly presents an opportunity for alternative payment mechanisms to have an impact. Yet if contactless is to be the ‘next big thing in retail’, all the signs are that this is still a long way off. What seems clear is that in order for it to make a greater impact on the consumer, this will only happen if it significantly improves the customer experience.”
