A new Sage Pay survey, conducted on UK businesses and consumers, has found that small and medium-sized retailers are losing £12bn ($20.2bn) by not accepting card payments.
According to Sage Pay, a payment service provider, cash handling cost an average of £17.8bn a year, or £3,638.57 per retailer.
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The survey also found that businesses don’t invest enough in new payment technologies, despite 36% of consumers saying that they were more likely to shop at places offering different or innovative purchase methods.
"UK small and medium businesses are a driving force in the country economy, but if they fail to innovate, they are in danger of being left behind," said Sage Pay’s CEO Simon Black.
80% of surveyed retailers said they would only embrace new payment methods, such as contactless technology, payment apps or Bitcoin, if customers requested it. Only 36% said they will be looking to adopt contactless payment within the next five years.
Also, the study showed that 40% of businesses lost money as a result of fraud this year, yet 39% didn’t spend anything on fraud prevention.
Finally, almost half of polled consumers said they thought that fingerprint recognition would be used by 2025 and a third reckoned that the UK would become a cashless society in the near future.
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