By Nick Noyer, Head of EMEA Marketing, Stripe

Consumer spending has been moving online at a growing pace over the past 20 years. When COVID-19 hit, it further accelerated the ongoing trend, causing retailers and other businesses to evaluate and adapt to new consumer spending patterns. The most adaptive firms not only saw this as a challenge to survive, but an opportunity to flourish.

Stripe commissioned Forrester Consulting to research the payment technologies, strategies, and future capabilities firms are investing in to become more adaptive during the challenges of the pandemic and beyond. Forrester conducted an online survey of nearly 500 online retail leaders around the globe, with 221 respondents coming from Europe.

Here are three key findings of the study: 

• Retailers plan to expand, rather than contract, their businesses during the pandemic. Instead of seeing the pandemic as a moment to retreat, the majority of retailers plan to expand their businesses in thenext 12 months by creating new revenue streams or increasing their global reach in an attempt to respond to evolving consumer behaviors.
• Retailers face resource and expertise blockers as they pursue new business models andinternational expansion. Expanding into new markets and launching new business models requires significant domain expertise and often extensive internal resources. Meeting local requirements such as adding relevant payment methods and ensuring compliance creates massive overhead when handled in an ad hoc fashion. Additionally, as businesses grow and expand internationally, they can be exposed to new fraud
• Businesses that invest in the right payments technology are able to quickly execute growthstrategies. Partnering with a tech-forward payments provider unlocks functionality beyond just payments. By arming retailers with powerful tools to manage fraud, more choice to offer consumers in how they pay, and the ability to make data-driven decisions, payments providers can enable businesses to expand into new global markets and layer new business models on top of their existing ones more quickly than their competitors.

To find out more about the respondents’ priorities and top initiatives, download the full Forrester Study Resilience In Retail: How European Businesses Are Adapting with Payments.

About Stripe:

Millions of businesses of all sizes — from startups to large enterprises — use Stripe’s software and APIs to accept payments, send payouts, and manage their businesses online.

Stripe provides payment solutions to some of the largest retailers in the world, including ASOS, Missguided, and Waitrose.

To find out more contact us at https://stripe.com/gb/contact/sales.