Nearly half (46%) of UK consumers have experienced a payment failure at the checkout in the past 12 months, says the latest research from Transaction Network Services (TNS), a managed network and payment solution provider.

Original research of 3,000 consumers across the UK, U.S. and Australia by TNS highlights a growing reliability gap in retail payments that may cost retailers revenue and impact CX. 

“These figures should be a wake-up call for UK retailers,” said Matthew Thomas, MD UK&I for TNS Payments Market. “It is a symptom of fragmented infrastructure.”

TNS warns that, as retail stores expand and add more IoT devices, such as self-checkouts (SCOs), kiosks and smart sensors, their networks can become over-strained, leading to friction and failure. And, especially when this occurs at the point of payment, can cause abandoned purchases, lost revenue and reputational damage for the brand. 

At the Retail Technology Show this week, TNS will showcase TNSLink for Retail, its fully managed connectivity solution that is designed to transform how retailers manage connectivity across distributed estates. 

Engineered to safeguard resilience against the risk of outages and threats, it provides secure, resilient and scalable networking for in-store systems, including POS, kiosks, IoT devices and digital signage. The solution helps eliminate the complexity of managing multiple vendors, circuits, and security protocols, streamlining operations while ensuring compliance with PCI DSS. 

“Retailers’ priority must shift to ensuring their infrastructure is able to withstand the pressures that today’s commerce environment demands, whether that’s ensuring continuous uptime, reducing complexity or providing maximum security,” added Thomas.