Black Friday Warning as Aevi Study Finds 53% of US Shoppers Would Refuse to Shop Over Payment Options

LONDON, Oct. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As retailers prepare for Black Friday, research from in-person payment orchestration platform Aevi shows that 53% of US customers would refuse to shop where their chosen method isn't taken, rising to around 60% among key consumer demographics.

Aevi's survey of more than 2,000 US consumers:

• 85% of US shoppers want paying in store to be as easy as paying online, yet the checkout infrastructure is struggling to keep up.
• 36% of US shoppers abandoned an in-store purchase over a payment problem in the past year, including 10% in the past month
• 44% are less likely to return after a slow or failed payment

Queues top the list of frustrations for 42% of Americans. Younger shoppers are hit hardest, with 33% of 18 to 24-year-olds naming payment failures as a top frustration against 10% of over-65s.

Hundreds of shoppers also described bad payment experiences. One US respondent wrote: "I felt embarrassed when a payment was declined due to the store's system. Another time, I had to abandon my shopping because I couldn't tap to pay and didn't have my wallet."

The data shows that shopper expectations are outpacing in-store payment infrastructure. Adding a payment method online takes days; in store, certification, software updates and rollout across locations can take months.

How can retailers close the gap? Mike Camerling, CEO at Aevi, said: "Black Friday is the weekend American retailers can least afford a checkout that says no. More than a third of US shoppers have already walked out of a store over a payment problem, and many won't come back. Retailers that can add a payment method or change providers without rebuilding every store will keep the customers their competitors lose".

Aevi's whitepaper, The real cost of a checkout that doesn't work, examines shopper experiences of in-person payments and asks payment experts what it would take to fix the problems retailers face.

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SOURCE Aevi