New research from Barclays and Barclaycard shows that Britons are fed up with waiting in line, with two-fifths of customers refusing to queue for longer than two minutes and two-thirds regularly abandoning purchases.
According to the poll of 2,000 shoppers, 51% of customers refuse to even enter a store if there’s a long line.
To combat this issue,12% of retailers, including supermarket chain Co-operative, have begun to deploy contactless payment systems, which reduce transaction times by over a third, according to Barclays.
Brian Cunnington, head of debit cards for UK Retail Banking at Barclays, says, “The research shows that, particularly for small ticket items, consumers are no longer prepared to wait in line. They know they can go to another shop and purchase what they need more quickly. That is why many of our customers are starting to use contactless payment for goods under £15. It vastly speeds up purchases, while removing the need to fumble for the right amount of cash.”
The study also shows that the lower the value of the item, the more likely a shopper is to abandon a purchase if the queue is too long. The number of people willing to wait no more than a minute triples for lesser amounts, while the number willing to wait around 10 minutes falls dramatically for lower value purchases, according to Barclays.
Retailers currently offering contactless payment from Barclays include Co-operative supermarket, Little Chef, EAT., Subway and Pret a Manger. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/contactlessnews-4.gif)
