Closing the gap between consumer payment expectations and retailer reality
More than half of consumers will walk away from a purchase simply because their preferred payment method is not available. That single statistic, drawn from Adyen’s retail research, should be uncomfortable reading for any merchant still treating payment method coverage as a low-priority infrastructure decision.
The gap is real and measurable. While digital wallets are now a primary payment instrument for more than a quarter of consumers, only 28% of retailers accept them across all their channels. BNPL adoption among shoppers continues to grow, yet only 17% of merchants offer it consistently online and in-store. QR code payments are growing at 11% annually. These are not niche preferences. They are mainstream behaviours that checkout flows are failing to accommodate.
The Dutch and Belgian markets raise those stakes further. Both markets have strong domestic payment habits alongside rapid growth in mobile and wallet-based payments. Dutch consumers are used to frictionless iDEAL flows and are increasingly combining that expectation with Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout. Belgian shoppers show similar dual-track behaviour. A checkout that cannot flex to meet those preferences does not just lose one transaction. It damages repurchase intent.
The omnichannel dimension adds further complexity. Consumers do not distinguish between a brand’s app, its website, and its physical store. They expect payment continuity across all three. Unified commerce platforms are being positioned as the answer, but the real test is whether the checkout layer genuinely surfaces the right payment options in the right context, rather than simply sharing a back-end ledger.
The practical implication for merchants is clear: payment method coverage is now a conversion lever, not just an operational checkbox. Auditing which methods are live where, and identifying the gaps relative to your actual customer base, is a concrete starting point. Social commerce channels deserve the same audit. Three quarters of retailers surveyed reported revenue growth after enabling social shopping, yet payment completion rates on those channels often lag behind core checkout flows.
Source: adyen.com
