YouGov and payments solutions company GoCardless have revealed that one third of financial decision makers at UK businesses plan to invest more in their payments infrastructure. The research from YouGov and GoCardless, which surveyed 503 UK business decision-makers and 2,159 UK consumers – also reveals that over a fifth (21%) of those planning to invest are doing so to keep up with market trends.

Other drivers include introducing new products and services (19%), reducing payment fraud (16%), and keeping up with competitors (16%). The top areas for investment are digital invoicing (33%), mobile wallets (31%), Direct Debit (28%), and Open Banking (28%). Following market trends and customer preferences Embracing new technology could help stem the tide of customers walking away from an online purchase.

The research finds that nearly seven in 10 (69%) UK consumers would abandon the online checkout if the payment process was too complex and six in 10 (64%) would stop their purchase if their preferred payment method wasn’t available. Business buyers are similarly discouraged. Half (50%) of businesses would stop a purchase if their preferred payment method was unavailable; 56% would drop out if the checkout process is too complex; and 44% get frustrated when they’re required to manually enter payment details at the online checkout.

As new payment technology rolls out, one third (33%) of financial decision makers at UK businesses said they are likely to try Variable Recurring Payments, powered by Open Banking, for business purchases as the technology becomes more widely available. Of these leaders, over a quarter (26%) noted that Variable Recurring Payments sound like a better version of Direct Debit and 23% agreed that they sound convenient. The insights into the UK’s paying habits were revealed in a new report, ‘Demystifying Payer Experience’, from GoCardless, which surveyed over 7,000 consumers across the UK, US, France, Germany, and Australia, and more than 1,500 business decision-makers in the UK, US, France, and Germany.

The report dives deeper into payer preferences, checkout challenges, appetite to try new payment methods and areas of investment for businesses looking to upgrade their payment infrastructure. .