LONDON: More than a half of UK smartphone owners have abandoned a mobile transaction, costing retailers a potential £6bn a survey has found.
Harris Interactive polled 1,013 UK online adults aged over 18 on behalf of Jumio, the identity management and credentials company, for the latter's 2015 Mobile Consumer Insights Study.
This found that that 55% of respondents had given up on a mobile purchase, while a quarter had abandoned attempts to open an online gaming (24%) or financial services (25%) account.
And around one-third (32%) of those abandoning a transaction did not attempt it again.
"As mobile transactions continue to skyrocket, so do abandoned purchases, incomplete account openings and lost revenue," said Marc Barach, Jumio CMO.
He added that while abandonment rates had improved over the past two years, "experiences are still far from being as seamless as they need to be in order for retailers to stem the tide of lost opportunity and put a potential £6bn back in their pockets".
Fashion retailers suffered most, with 53% of respondents abandoning purchases in this sector and women significantly more likely to do so than men (62% v 44%).
Second worst was food and drink (39%) followed by travel (38%), entertainment (35%), household goods (35%), tickets for events (30%) and electronics (30%).
Customer concerns about usability made up the top three reasons for abandonment, including slow loading times (32%), payment process being too complicated (27%) and difficulty with navigating the checkout process (26%). Typing information on a small screen was also cited by 21% of respondents.
Overall, the study found that usability issues (68%) far outweighed purchase uncertainty (21%) or payment security (16%) when it came to abandoning a mobile transaction.
When people did try again later, just over a quarter (27%) said they did so on a computer while the rest persevered with their smartphones (22%) or tablets (17%).
Men (73%) were more likely than women (63%) to attempt a transaction again.
Harris Interactive polled 1,013 UK online adults aged over 18 on behalf of Jumio, the identity management and credentials company, for the latter's 2015 Mobile Consumer Insights Study.
This found that that 55% of respondents had given up on a mobile purchase, while a quarter had abandoned attempts to open an online gaming (24%) or financial services (25%) account.
And around one-third (32%) of those abandoning a transaction did not attempt it again.
"As mobile transactions continue to skyrocket, so do abandoned purchases, incomplete account openings and lost revenue," said Marc Barach, Jumio CMO.
He added that while abandonment rates had improved over the past two years, "experiences are still far from being as seamless as they need to be in order for retailers to stem the tide of lost opportunity and put a potential £6bn back in their pockets".
Fashion retailers suffered most, with 53% of respondents abandoning purchases in this sector and women significantly more likely to do so than men (62% v 44%).
Second worst was food and drink (39%) followed by travel (38%), entertainment (35%), household goods (35%), tickets for events (30%) and electronics (30%).
Customer concerns about usability made up the top three reasons for abandonment, including slow loading times (32%), payment process being too complicated (27%) and difficulty with navigating the checkout process (26%). Typing information on a small screen was also cited by 21% of respondents.
Overall, the study found that usability issues (68%) far outweighed purchase uncertainty (21%) or payment security (16%) when it came to abandoning a mobile transaction.
When people did try again later, just over a quarter (27%) said they did so on a computer while the rest persevered with their smartphones (22%) or tablets (17%).
Men (73%) were more likely than women (63%) to attempt a transaction again.
Data sourced from Jumio; additional content by Warc staff
