UK small and medium-sized businesses are losing an average of £159,500 a year to failed payments, abandoned checkouts, and payment-related customer churn, according to new research from Access PaySuite. The findings point to what the company describes as a hidden revenue gap, with losses building across payment failure, customer friction, and time-intensive administration.
The independent study surveyed 250 UK SME finance and payments decision-makers and found that 3.4% of all payment transactions fail on average. More than half of those failed transactions — 55.8% — are never recovered. Nearly half of respondents said they had lost customers through checkout abandonment, while more than a quarter said customers had switched to competitors because of payment friction. Almost one in 10 businesses said payment-related issues were costing them more than £1m annually.
The operational burden is also substantial. More than 70% of respondents said they spend between five and 20 hours each week managing payment failures and related administration. At the same time, fewer than four in 10 said they had full visibility into the wider revenue impact. The result, according to the research, is that finance teams are often left downloading spreadsheets, interrogating raw data manually, and trying to piece together what is happening across multiple disconnected systems.
That lack of visibility appears to be shaping investment priorities. Access PaySuite said 95% of UK businesses are either evaluating, planning to implement, or interested in AI-driven systems that could reduce payment-related revenue leakage. The company has launched a unified AI-embedded payments platform in response, designed to bring multiple payment methods into one environment and give businesses clearer oversight of payment performance, customer choice, and revenue risk.
Jon Reynolds, Head of Product at Access PaySuite, said: “Businesses are leaking revenue at a scale many don’t fully appreciate. When more than half of failed transactions are never recovered, the cumulative financial impact quickly becomes significant. But failure rates are only part of the story. The bigger issue is visibility, since many finance teams simply don’t have a clear, consolidated view of where and why revenue is being lost. That’s what our new platform is designed to address. It gives businesses clarity and control, enabling them to identify problems in real time — rather than weeks later — and enables them to make informed decisions before losses escalate.”
Rather than asking finance teams to manipulate raw data, Access PaySuite said the platform uses built-in AI to surface insights more quickly and help businesses act before losses deepen. For SMEs already under pressure to protect margin and retain customers, the figures suggest payment performance is becoming a broader commercial issue rather than a back-office technical problem.
For more information, visit Access PaySuite.
