By Ralf Gladis

Payment services provider (PSP), Computop, has analysed payment patterns across its global network which show that the recent economic turmoil and uncertainty in the US and the Eurozone has led to a 20% drop in online shopping order values within the UK. This compares to a nine percent rise in the same period, July to August, 2010.

The research also shows an overall decrease in GBP turnover comparing the summer period 2010 to the same period 2011. In 2010 turnover rose by eight percent, however, July to August 2011 analysis shows a drop of fourteen percent.

A comparison of July to August 2010 to the same period 2011

Comparing July and August 2010 with the same period in 2011, figures show that there is a strong difference in consumer purchasing behaviour.

• In the UK, the number of online orders grew by 4 percent, however, order values dropped by 10 percent resulting in a seven percent drop in turnover from June to July.

• From July to August, the number of orders increase by fifteen percent however, basket values drop by 20 percent. During the same period 2010, basket values grew by nine percent and turnover rose by eight percent.

• Within the Eurozone, at the end of Q2/2011, we see a five percent increase in turnover as well as in the number of transactions, indicating an indifference of Eurozone consumers regarding the difficult situation within global economies. However, by August, this indifference has changed and basket values drop by 8.1%.

All indicators point to consumers still buying, but spending far less on each transaction. Interestingly though, we see an increase in the number of orders placed with UK retailers which could indicate that consumers are switching from the high street to online in order to save money. As consumers become more focused on their personal liquidity and concerns of decreasing disposable income, retailers need to build strategies to make them feel more comfortable about their online spending. For instance, European retailers could increase their payment options to include payment on invoice and online consumer loans for high value products.

These options have less direct impact on consumer liquidity. Another key area for retailers to focus on is ensuring they avoid any consumer hesitation at the checkout stage. By offering local preferred payment methods such as PayPal in the UK and payment on invoice in Germany and iDEAL in the Netherlands, consumers feel safe and retailers are provided with a payment guarantee, meaning fewer abandoned transactions.

The Eurozone

Unlike the UK, the Eurozone does not show much difference between summer 2010 and 2011. Online turnover remained static in 2010 and shows a slow decrease of only 0.8 percent in summer 2011. In summer 2010, orders increased by seven percent, whereas they grew by 12 percent from July to August 2011.

The USA

In the USA last year, online turnover grew by four percent from July to August 2010 due to a two percent increase in orders and a three percent increase of basket values. During the same period this year, the number of orders remains static whilst turnover grows by seven percent and basket values grow by eight percent. This increase in growing US basket values indicate that US online consumers may have already adapted to economic tough times and are starting to spend more online.

Comparisons between June - July and from July - August 2011 show complex consumer behavior with significantly dropping basket values in Europe as well as decreasing turnover, although the number of orders are still climbing

Methodology

Computop is a leading global payment service provider (PSP) with offices in the UK, Germany and the USA. For the purposes of this research, Computop analysed the number of orders as well as basket values and turnovers of 1,600 international online retailers, travel and gaming portals using the Computop Paygate payment platform. The analysis of Q2/2011 focused on the same customers. New customer wins after Q2/2010 are not included in this analysis.

About the author

Ralf Gladis is CEO of Computop. He is co-founder and managing director of the German based companies Computop GmbH and Computop International GmbH. He also acts as a non-executive Director of the Board at Computop USA. In addition to his role at Computop, Ralf has a number of books published over the years on ecommerce database design, by German publishers. Ralf studied Business Information Technology at the University of Bamberg, Germany prior to founding Computop in 1993.

About Computop

Computop is a payment service provider (PSP) that was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Bamberg, Germany. The company has global customers such as Fossil, C&A, Samsung and TUI and has offices located in North America and Europe. Computop’s Paygate PCI-compliant hosted payment solution supports all non-customer present payments, including telephone, online and mobile.

www.computop.com