The inaugural Digital Payments and Localization Survey by Applause has revealed a significant trend among users abandoning apps due to poor localization or payment issues. The survey found that 41% of respondents had recently encountered an issue that prevented them from completing a purchase. This comes at a time when global e-commerce sales are projected to surpass $6.3 trillion by the end of the year. Despite substantial investments in localization and payment testing best practices, developers are falling short of global expectations for facilitating transactions on apps and websites.
Key Findings from the Survey
The survey, which included over 6,700 software developers, QA professionals, and independent consumers worldwide, highlighted several key points. Firstly, 41% of consumers recently faced an issue that affected their ability to make a payment. This is a significant concern, considering high cart abandonment rates contribute to an estimated annual loss of $111 billion to $136 billion in revenue for U.S. retailers.
Secondly, 76% of consumers are likely to abandon a transaction if their preferred payment method is not accepted. Credit/debit cards remain the most popular method, preferred by 78% of U.S. consumers, closely followed by mobile/digital wallets at 68%.
However, despite the growing demand for mobile/digital wallets, providers are not keeping up. The survey found that 62% of software and QA professionals claim customer preferences drive which payment methods to accept, but only 56% of them accept mobile/digital wallets.
Lastly, the survey revealed that 52% of consumers have abandoned an app due to poor localization, contributing to revenue loss from cart abandonment. The top localization issues encountered by respondents included incorrect words or syntax (48%), assumptions of local knowledge (40%), and misspellings (38%).
The survey underscores the need for developers to focus on improving digital payment systems and localization to enhance the user experience and reduce cart abandonment rates.
