Visa: Digital payments boost turnover for UK small businesses

Research commissioned by Visa, a world leader in digital payments, has shown that card acceptance among small businesses in the UK has continued to grow year-on-year. Last year acceptance rates were up to 61% from 58% in 2021. These findings are the result of a recent study commissioned by Visa, undertaken by market research company Dynata that surveyed 802 small businesses in the UK and 5,500 across Europe.

A majority (58%) of the small businesses surveyed agreed that customers spend more when they use cards and almost half (45%) saw an increase in their turnover after beginning to accept card payments (most of them declaring an increase ranging between 6-15%).

With businesses continuing to digitalise, over two thirds (67%) find card payments to be simpler to use than other methods and the same amount (67%) say they reduced the risk of not getting paid.

Mandy Lamb, Managing Director, UK & Ireland, Visa, commented: “Our latest research shows that in today’s challenging economic climate, small businesses are embracing digitalisation and seeing a positive impact to their bottom-line, helping them to stay resilient and competitive.

“At Visa we are constantly innovating to help small businesses take advantage of digital transformation by introducing technologies such as tap to pay which provide quick, easy and secure ways for customers to pay, streamlining the experience and helping to boost sales and revenue.”

The acceptance of card payments for small businesses also varies greatly by industry across the UK. Those with the highest rate of acceptance include businesses that provide consumers with physical goods such as retail and food stores. Overall businesses selling both products and services had a higher rate of digital adoption (78%) than those selling just products (71%) or just services (42%).

Card adoption per segment, 2022, top three*

*In percent, companies with an annual turnover of up to EUR 10 million and fewer than 50 employees

Visa’s Untapped Segment Programme was created in 2021 to support small merchants across industries that had lower acceptance rates, from Agriculture & Manufacturing (59%) and Professional Services (55%) to Consumer Services (55%) and Education (39%). The programme partners up with merchant acquirers and payment facilitators and offers comprehensive support to expand acceptance within these sectors.

The programme is supported by Visa’s annual, in-depth quantitative market research which enables Visa to gather a breadth of small business opinions to invest in developing payment solutions that support small businesses’ needs. To date, under the programme, Visa has supported the onboarding of more than 100k merchants in the digital payment ecosystem in the UK and Ireland.