UK Retail & Hospitality Sales Face £1.6 B Threat from Payment Outages

UK Retailers and Restaurants Are Losing a Billions Every Year Because of Payment Chaos

Just when you think the only thing that can ruin a shopper’s day is a bad latte, a new study shows that a broken payment system can slap them with a hefty £1.6 billion in losses—every single year. That’s enough money to fund a space‑faring rocket, a chocolate factory, or just one massive pay‑back for the grocer who stole your PIN.

Key Take‑aways (Because Numbers Are Life‑Saving)

Consumers only mind a few minutes. 6 min of hiccups = frustration; 22 min = outright walking away. But shoppers search online, snuffer drinks, and then turn to their phone because the average outage is a whopping 84 min.
Businesses over‑estimate patience by 10 minutes (32 min vs. 22 min). That misjudgment leads to immediate customer loss and brand damage—think of it as “behind‑the‑counter bruises.”
If your payment system falters between 7th and 11th minute, £73 million of sales could evaporate every minute you’re offline.
By the 22nd minute, the total losses could hit a mad £1.17 billion—that’s 74 % of all the revenue that’s sitting at risk.
Less than 30% of shoppers always have cash. The average cash stash is £35, while the typical in‑store spend tops up around £47. So, cash‑less retailers are basically asking for trouble.
Higher‑income shoppers, who dine out more often and rely on digital payments, suffer the most when systems go down.
Almost one‑fifth of businesses (22 %) don’t even have a backup payment method beyond cash, and a worrying 7 % has no fallback at all.

Why It’s Not Just IT but Business Mojo

Chris Kronenthal, FreedomPay’s President, warns that the modern world is a tumbleweed of “extreme weather, power cuts, cyber‑attacks.” The lack of proper planning is turning revenue loss and reputational damage into a perfect storm.

Alois Reitbauer, Dynatrace’s Chief Tech Strategist, adds, “Outages break the customer flow and adjust essential services. To stay resilient you need real‑time visibility, ability to adapt on the fly, and tech that automatically stops or fixes breaches.”

Richard Lim, CEO of Retail Economics, sums it up: “In today’s cut‑throat market, seamless payment isn’t optional—it’s a must. The financial toll is huge, but losing customer trust can destroy a brand forever. Investing in a fail‑safe system means safeguarding growth and staying ahead.