COVID-19 has made an identifiable impact on the way consumers are going about making payments. Some of these changes have been enforced by the physical challenges of coping with day-to-day life during the pandemic; while shops are closed and the move to contactless payments for in-store payments being the most obvious.
COVID-19 might also have a psychological impact on how and when consumers make payments? Has there been a change in attitude when it comes to choosing a payment method and the preferences when it comes to the checkout experience? And if so will this shift be permanent?
In order to answer these questions, we surveyed 8,000 consumers from the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Bulgaria on how COVID-19 has altered their priorities when selecting a payment method, as well as their physical habits. Other data from this research can be found here.
For the significant majority, COVID-19 has had an effect
The first major takeaway from the research in this regard is that COVID-19 has made a tangible impact on consumers’ priorities when making a payment. When asked whether any determining factors they might consider when selecting a payment method had become more important to them since the pandemic’s outbreak, only 16% of consumers said that their attitudes had not been affected in any way. This percentage was higher in the UK (22%), Germany (26%), and Austria (24%), but was significantly lower elsewhere. In the US, only 12% of consumers said they were unaffected; 88% said their attitudes to payments had been affected somehow.
Security is valued more than convenience
When we take a closer look at which priorities are more significantly affected, a clear pattern emerges across every country surveyed. Security is the factor that has grown in importance for most people, followed by the potential associated costs of making a transaction. Over one third (34%) of consumers said that protection against loss from fraud became more important to them following the outbreak and close to the same number (32%). They noted that ensuring their financial data was kept secure from fraudsters was a growing concern. This second concern has become more critical for a higher number of consumers in Canada (40%) and the US (36%).
The convenience of online payments has become a more pressing priority for some consumers, including the speed of completion (for 21% of consumers) and the ease of the checkout user experience (for 17% of consumers). However, in every country, the percentage of consumers that said this was a growing concern was lower than the rate that was more focused on security.
The imbalance between security and convenience
To further explore whether consumers were more focused on better security or improved user experience, we asked survey respondents whether they thought the current balance between the two (sometimes competing) factors matched their expectations when paying via the online checkout. The overwhelming majority said that the balance struck at the moment was not correct; only 18% of consumers agreed that the balance between security, convenience, and fraud protection was satisfactory. 82% said they were not satisfied, and only 5% said that this was because they wanted a more frictionless checkout experience even if this increased the probability of fraud.
Over three quarters (76%) of consumers said they would be in favor of tightening current security protocols, even if it compromises the convenience of the checkout experience. 25% of consumers were in favor of doing this minimally. Still, over half of all the consumers surveyed said that now they would accept whatever security measures would be needed to eradicate fraud, even if this had a severely detrimental impact on the checkout experience. This percentage was consistent across all countries, with only the US (48%) falling marginally short of half of all consumers.
Next steps
As we begin to emerge on the other side of the pandemic, businesses will be desperate to reclaim much of the commercial ground they may have lost throughout the first half of the year. But while making the shopping experience as frictionless as possible might initially appear to be a sure-fire way to boost sales, a slick shopping experience that leaves the customer concerned about the security of their financial data will have the opposite effect.
eCommerce and mCommerce businesses have long-sought-after the most convenient user experience. Still, with consumers now being more focused than ever on the security of their financial data, this will be easier said than done. But there are solutions, including promoting alternative payment methods where financial details are not shared, and biometric authentication. Understanding how these can shift the perception of security vs. convenience in the eyes of consumers is vital.
Article Credit https://www.paysafe.com/blog/has-covid-19-moved-the-needle-on-security-vs-convenience/
