Status: 07/01/2022 08:54 a.m
A month after the failure of many card terminals, the extent of the damage is becoming clear. Many retail companies are complaining about lost sales – a setback for the trend towards cashless payments?
About a month after the large-scale failure of many payment terminals in German retail, a more precise extent of the problems at that time is becoming clear. According to a survey by the German Retail Association (HDE) among 800 retail companies, the news agency dpa is available, 22 percent of the companies surveyed were affected by the day-long outages. Three quarters of them complained about lost sales.
Due to the failure of the payment terminals, many customers were no longer able to pay with giro or credit cards when shopping at the end of May. Among other things, branches of Aldi Nord, Edeka or the Edeka subsidiary Netto were affected. The background was a malfunction in the widely used H5000 device from the US manufacturer Verifone.
Loss of sales and unsettled customers
“The disruptions that occurred a few weeks ago at many payment terminals were of an unprecedented dimension,” said HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth. This was more than just an annoyance for many of the retail companies affected. “Sales were lost here, and customers were extremely unsettled at times.”
Genth demanded that the terminal operators now transparently work through the causes and ensure for the future that such a complete failure cannot happen again through emergency systems or better internal security measures.
According to the survey, the disruptions lasted at least four days for 83 percent of those affected, and 70 percent of those surveyed stated that they had to be without the terminal for more than seven days. After all, customers could sometimes pay using alternative methods, including purchase on account, direct debit, terminals from other manufacturers or Paypal – and with cash.
Is the trend towards cashless payments breaking?
Cashless payments have received a boost in Germany during the pandemic. The share of sales from card payments in stationary retail rose from 50.5 percent in 2019 to 58.8 percent last year, according to a study by the Cologne retail research institute EHI published in early May.
According to a survey by the digital association Bitkom, from January to March, i.e. before the card terminals failed, 93 percent of people in Germany had paid at least once with a card, smartphone or smartwatch. A year ago, the proportion was 85 percent, and at the end of 2020 it was 79 percent. Two-thirds of people are now even bothered if they cannot pay cashless in the shop. Other consequences of the pandemic: According to a survey, 71 percent use cash less often, and half now find cash to be unhygienic.