News

How long are shoppers willing to wait? Six minutes.

August 2, 2013

A new study by Omnico, which surveyed 1,344 U.K. consumers, says that British shoppers are willing to stand in line an average of six minutes before giving up and walking out.

Young shoppers have slightly longer patience for "queue time" than older shoppers, but not much — customers between 16 and 24 are willing to wait up to 6 minutes and 9 seconds, while shoppers 55 and up will give up at the 5 minute, 46 second mark.

In a report from U.K.-based Retail Gazette, Omnico CEO Bill Henry suggests mobile POS as a solution:

Mobile point of sale (PoS) technology is an answer to the queuing problem, as it can be deployed quickly and has a positive impact on retailers’ shop floor estate, offering space saving opportunity as well as reduced capital expenditure. It frees sales assistants up to move around the store and answer questions or move to areas that are busiest.