New research from FreedomPay reveals Australian shoppers give businesses just five minutes to fix payment failures before walking away
Sydney, Australia, Sept. 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Payment system failures place up to AU$3.1 billion in annual retail and hospitality sales at risk across Australia, according to a major new FreedomPay study.
Drawing on surveys of 2,000 Australian consumers and 200 business managers, the report, created in partnership with FT Longitude, exposes the commercial impact of outages in an increasingly cashless economy.
With Australian businesses reporting an average of five payment disruptions per year, payment outages have evolved into a persistent operational threat with increasingly high stakes. More than half (53%) of payment disruptions occur during peak trading periods, when retailers are under the greatest pressure, and the cost of failure increases.
The research comes as Australia’s cashless economy continues to accelerate. With 95% of Australian card payments now contactless, reliance on instant, invisible transactions has heightened consumer expectations and reduced tolerance for downtime.
While Australian businesses recognise the threat of payment disruption, many underestimate how quickly revenue is exposed once systems fail. The average Australian payment outage lasts 136 minutes, or more than two hours, yet findings show consumers lose patience within minutes. For digital-first shoppers, the damage can be lasting: 71% say a single payment failure permanently reduces their trust in a business.
“Australia’s rapid transition toward a cashless economy means payment resilience is directly tied to business survival and customer trust,” says Chris Kronenthal, President, FreedomPay. “In a market where digital payments are the default, an outage can jeopardise immediate revenue and create longer-term damage to brand trust and credibility, which is far more difficult to repair.
“That is why recovering systems within the first five minutes, thereby avoiding up to 91% of potential losses, is critical to protecting revenue, supporting staff and preserving customer loyalty.”
Key findings from the study include:
- Over half (53%) of disruptions occur during peak trading windows (3pm-6pm for retail; 6pm-midnight for hospitality). Yet 18% of businesses rely on cash alone as a backup, and only 53% utilise offline card processing.
- Younger consumers carry less cash and lose trust quickly: Only 16% of Millennials and 13% of Gen Z always carry cash (vs 48% of Baby Boomers). Among digital-first shoppers, 71% say a single payment failure permanently reduces their trust in a business, while Gen Z (72%) and Millennials (65%) record the highest likelihood to complain or post negative reviews.
- Power outages are the top vulnerability. Power outages represent the single largest source of disruption for Australian traders, placing AU$1.126 billion (37%) in annual sales at risk, followed by POS system failures (AU$730m / 24%). 78% of businesses agree that power outages, extreme weather, or cyber incidents pose a growing threat to payment continuity.
- Australian consumers are less patient than their European counterparts. Australians tolerate delays up to 5 minutes before frustration sets in (vs 7 minutes in the UK) and reach purchase abandonment at 10-11 minutes (vs 13 minutes in the UK). With the average outage lasting 136 minutes, nearly one in five consumers (18%) abandoned their purchase during their last disruption, costing an estimated AU$554 million in immediate lost sales.
- Restoring payment systems within five minutes avoids 91% of potential losses. Between minutes 6 and 10 of a disruption, lost sales average over AU$79 million per minute as customer walkouts accelerate.
“While prevention will always be the goal, this research makes clear that speed of recovery is what separates the most resilient businesses from their competitors,” says Piers Tomlinson, Editorial Director, Commercial Content and Thought Leadership, Financial Times. “Australian consumers are among the most impatient in the world when it comes to payment failures, and the clock starts ticking the moment systems go down. A robust payments system is an operational safeguard that protects revenue, frontline staff and customer trust.”
