Cashflows finds a fifth of UK SMBs plan redundancies to deal with inflationary pressures
Cashflows, the platform that makes it easy for merchants to accept payments, today announces new research showing that 20% of UK small and medium businesses (SMBs) are considering making redundancies to help contend with rising inflation. A further fifth (19%) have already cut staff.
As the UK sinks further into recession, payment decision makers said they are considering a range of options to counteract the impact of inflation which has so far led to increases in shopping cart abandonment (35%) and bills (34%), alongside decreasing sales (29%). To cut costs, businesses are considering cutting staff benefits (31%) and hiking product prices (35%), with 60% of business owners having already increased their prices to maintain cash flow.
Although businesses are already being forced to take these drastic steps, few have considered switching merchant acquirer, with just 13% of businesses having done so since January and only 6% of payment decision makers considering doing so in the future. Switching acquirer can not only ensure that businesses get better value, enabling positive business outcomes, but also leads to optimising the payment and checkout process to help businesses actively reduce cart abandonment and increase sales.
June Ahi, chief people officer of Cashflows said: “Understandably, during these times of economic uncertainty, redundancies, reducing staff benefits and increasing prices may seem unavoidable for many businesses. But before taking these steps, payment decision makers have an opportunity to review existing processes and suppliers to see where improvements can be made. Switching acquirer, for example, can lead to savings, access to higher quality strategic advice, and the ability to leverage new, optimised payment solutions.
“This, however, can be challenging due to the jargon used by payment providers, which makes it hard for payments decision makers to effectively compare solutions. Indeed, in its 2022 investigation, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) outlined a need for increased transparency and more standardised language in the payments industry for this very reason, and our own research found that 78% of those managing payment acceptance at SMBs do not know how to conduct a search for a new acquirer. Cashflows strongly supports any initiative makes it easier for businesses to switch providers and make the right payment decisions to cut costs, at a time when every penny counts.”
The full research can be viewed in Cashflows’ latest report, People Behind Payments Chapter 3: Imagining success in the face of inflation, which can be downloaded here.
