With this year’s Black Friday falling on 29 November and Cyber Monday on 02 December, creating a “Cyber Weekend”, retailers are faced with the challenge of processing record numbers of payments and potentially refunds.
Last year’s Black Friday achieved record sales of £13.3bn, up 7.6% from 2022. Lloyds Bank Merchant Services, the bank’s card payments processing and acceptance unit, is encouraging retail merchants to ensure that their payment platforms are ready to capitalise on the volume surges expected over Black Friday.
“When margins are tight and customers are looking for the best bargains, merchants can provide a great customer experience with targeted offers, generating more sales and bolstering revenues,” said Melinda Roylett, managing director of Merchant Services, Lloyds Banking Group.
“Retailers should use a payments platform with consistent uptime and a wide range of payment methods, which is secure, reliable and flexible enough to handle the volume spikes during peak sales periods like Black Friday. With the right tools, tech, and hand-in-hand support, retailers will not just survive Cyber Weekend, but also have the data that will help them thrive well into the future.”
Additional research by Mastercard found nearly two-thirds of shoppers still struggle through manually entering their card details, with 25% of carts abandoned because checkout is too complex or slow.
The average online shopping cart abandonment rate worldwide reached 70.19% in 2023, according to Statista, resulting in an estimated $260bn recoverable loss in ecommerce sales annually in the US and EU alone. Plus, fraud rates are seven times higher online than in stores, as criminals exploit exposed card numbers, creating headaches for cardholders and huge losses for merchants and card issuers.
Furthermore, with the peak season likely to cause a surge in return rates, Worldpay has introduced a service that delivers near instant refunds, depending on the receiving financial institution. This helps to close the gap between consumer expectations and merchant capabilities.
“Studies show that up to 30% of all ecommerce purchases end in a return or exchange. Offering a faster refund experience means merchants can create better customer interactions. For example, it could potentially reduce calls to customer service to track funds,” said John McNaught, head of payouts at Worldpay.
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