(5 March 2012 – Australia) East & Partner’s just released 2012 Merchant Payments report has shown that online payments among merchants is experiencing significant uplift despite a slow beginning, however a number of merchants are still unwilling to adopt online payment channels due to perceived issues around transaction safety and security.East’s latest round of research shows that 19.2 percent of all merchants and
29.2 of all non-retail merchants now accept online payments. An additional 20.4
percent are currently planning to implement online payments. Four out of ten
merchants believe internet payment platforms should receive greater funding and
development, a significant proportion have also identified mobile phone payment
systems as a priority technology over the coming year.
This embracing of online payment structures varies by industry with the retail
sector much less likely to accept online payments compared to other sectors. The
main concern merchants have in accepting internet payment is security of the
payment with 64.4 percent of merchants identifying this as their primary
obstacle in actioning online payment platforms. Security is followed by
Reliability of Payment Gateway (20.6 percent) and Speed of Payment (15 percent)
as the three dominating concerns in relation to the acceptance of online
payments.
Exhibit 1:
Acceptance of Payments Online – All Merchants
| % of Total | ||
| Dec 2011 | Dec 2011 | |
|
Accept payments online |
13.9 | 19.2 |
|
Planning to accept payments online |
11.8 | 20.4 |
|
Don’t currently accept payments |
55.2 | 43.3 |
|
Never considered / no need to |
19.1 | 17.1 |
|
TOTAL |
100.0 | 100.0 |
Source: East & Partners Australian Merchant Payments report (February 2012)
East & Partners Principal Analyst Paul Dowling commented, “The drive to online
payments clearly has a head of steam but by no means are all merchants on board
with it. Adoption remains patchy and retailers with a high street presence are
the most reluctant adopters, seeing their bricks and mortar shopfront
investments potentially compromised by online.”
“Notwithstanding the big strides in payments security from solution vendors,
messaging from the industry is not ringing bells with a large proportion of
businesses” added Mr Dowling.
About East & Partners’ Australian Merchant Payments report
The Merchant Payments report provides a deep and unique insight into key drivers
of Australian merchants’ behaviour and payment practices. It draws upon East &
Partners’ rich data on the payments market which has been supplemented with
further reanalysis and additional primary data gathering executed directly with
merchants. The report provides important market analysis across a number of
critical areas including, the composition of merchant receivables, acceptance of
payment products, online payments uptake, merchants’ future product priorities
and credit card surcharging behaviour.
All of the figures included in the Australian Merchant Payment report are
derived from direct interviews with 2,500 Australian merchants, conducted as
part of East & Partners’ ongoing Merchant Acquiring and Cards Markets twice
annual research program.
Note: Merchant Segments
› Institutional – A$530 million plus
› Corporate – A$20-530 million
› SME – A$5-20 million
› Micro – A$1-5 million
For more information or to interview East & Partners on this report, please
contact:
Sian Dowling
Marcomms & Client Services
East & Partners
t: 02 9004 7848
m: 0420 583 553
e: sian.d@eastandpartners.com