It’s 2022. Get yourself a payments provider you can love
We’ve been busy digging into the current state of the payments market in the UK – where Mollie is now available for both international and domestic payments. The results are in and they shocked us, with many businesses opting to accept issues and endure shortcomings of their payment service provider (PSP) rather than switch. Among the headlines:
– Only 5% of UK SMEs have no issue with their current PSP.
– More than half of SMEs (52%) are frustrated by slow response times.
– Fear (29% worry about adoption costs), uncertainty (31% worry a change will impact CX), and contract lock-in (28%) are preventing UK SMEs from switching PSP.
Read on for some insights on the state of online payments in the UK, five questions to ask your current payments provider and why it’s time to get yourself a payments service provider you can love.
The state of online payments for UK SMEs
In December 2021, Mollie’s UK Marketing Manager, Marina Pape and Coleman Parks surveyed 500 UK SMEs to understand exactly what they loved and didn’t love so much about their current payment service provider.
With the UK ecommerce payments market historically dominated by a handful of established players, the picture was not altogether surprising. With many players focused on serving larger to enterprise businesses, small business owners left to put up with rates as high as 4.9% and 20p per transaction for card payments, for example.
“UK SMEs are quietly dissatisfied with their payment service providers, accepting and working around unresolved problems and unresponsive support. Fear, uncertainty and lock-in prevent them from switching,” says Josh Guthrie, Mollie’s UK Country Manager.
“Amazon already accounts for more than 30% of UK ecommerce sales and this will intensify, threatening UK SME growth ambitions. UK SMEs deserve better – they need PSP partners with frictionless onboarding to ease switching, a superior checkout experience to drive conversion and dedicated customer support that can help SMEs compete and grow, not just process their payments.”
With 18+ years commitment to transparency, simplicity, and local support, Mollie is here to play a part in the long overdue shake-up of the UK payments ecommerce market. And UK businesses are expecting to grow.
The future of UK ecommerce is… in Europe?
Of the 500 UK SMEs surveyed, a large number saw growth in the past 12 months despite challenges arising from the pandemic and changes associated to Brexit.
It may come as no surprise that post-Brexit, there’s been a stark dip in cross-border trade for UK merchants. However, rather than being dissauded, UK merchants have an eye on Europe for growth in the next 1-3 years:
Even though 63% of respondents only sell within the UK today, nearly 90% said that growing revenue from customers outside of the UK domestic market is a very important or important key strategic priority. Just 1% of respondents said selling outside the UK domestic market was not important to them at all.
In the next 1-3 years, UK SMEs expect growth from the past 12 months to continue and will need partners that understand the nuances of European consumer prefernences to support them.
Dissatisfied with your payment service provider? Ask these 5 questions
1. “What is the breakdown of fees you charge me for both domestic and international payments?”
Guaranteed to reveal a painful lack of transparency and sneaky surcharges. Mollie’s pricing is fiercely transparent.
2. “Are your customers forced into a redirect at checkout?”
Forcing customers into a redirect at checkout hurts conversion rates. Some payment and ecommerce providers force a redirect under different circumstances. With Mollie, it’s possible to reduce clicks to checkout from as many as eleven to just four.
3. “Can I activate Apple Pay today? If not, why?”
A few of the most established UK payment providers don’t support Apple Pay. This is a miss when mobile commerce is so prevalent. At Mollie we support Apple Pay on most platforms via our plugins and you don’t need to self-certify with Apple to get started.
4. “What happens to my rates for one payment methods if I decide to deactivate another?”
Ask your payments provider about what would happen to your fees if you were ot make some changes to your payment method stack. For example, would switching credit card provider impact your PayPal fees? What would happen to your transactions fees if you add an additional provider?
5. “Do you charge me for failed card payments?”
Mollie doesn’t charge businesses for failed card payments. If your provider does this, you could save a significant amount simply by switching cards to a different provider.
Time to switch? Come to Mollie
Since 2004, Mollie has served businesses across the continent with effortless payments and in 2021 expanded focus to support UK businesses for domestic payments, too.
We’re proud of our TrustPilot record and the strong relationships we’re building with customers and partners across the UK:
“What we do in our company is personalised care for our customers in a traditional way. I see that with Mollie as well. On the one hand, it’s top-notch modern, but it also has a personal touch.” – Paul Jacobs, co-owner at Ernest Wright
Get started today with our paperless onboarding – or if your business processes over £50,000 per month contact our friendly sales team.