Average transaction values (ATV) in online baskets have shrunk by 14.3 per cent year-on-year at a European payment service provider (PSP).
Realex Payments, which counts notonthehighstreet.com amongst its clients, said ATV dropped from £105 in 2012 to £90 in 2013 in a recent report.
The dip is due to people shopping more frequently for cheaper products. The report also found that Monday was the busiest day for online shopping with 21 per cent of payments processed on average.
Andrew Yoakley, Head of Business Development at Realex Payments, which posted a 21 per cent rise in processing volumes in January, said despite the online shopping boom he didn‘t believe a cashless society is something that will happen very soon.
“Contactless payment methods like ‘Ping It‘ will continue to grow in popularity,” he said. “There were 900m cheques circulated this year which is crazy because they are so costly. Most parties involved want to reduce this number significantly.”
He added: “We want to help retailers get paid in the easiest possible manner.”
The firm highlights the importance of notonthehighstreet.com being able to fulfil multiple multiple vendor orders with one authorisation – a process known as multi-settlement.
“It‘s really important to them,” he says. “If they have several smaller transactions of say £20 making up one basket of £100 they don‘t want to have to process five transactions – it‘s expensive and detracts from the customer experience.”
Upcoming regulation PSD2 is expected to drive down costs for online retailers in 2014 by reducing the associated processing costs.
