News

Study: Customers won't tolerate waiting in line more than four minutes

June 26, 2008

DALLAS — A study conducted by M/A/R/C Research found 10 percent of shoppers are frustrated enough to leave a check-out line if the wait is too long. The study, which was originally conducted in early 2007, was recently revisited to see if shopper attitudes towards check-out lines had changed.

M/A/R/C surveyed almost 13,000 shoppers thru an online survey to learn the importance checkout times had on their most recent shopping outings. The study included shoppers at stores in eight categories: Club, Consumer Electronics, Department, Drug, Grocery, Home Improvement, Mass Merchandisers, and Office Supply Stores.

The study reports a consistency from 2007, reflecting that shopper satisfaction remains high when in line four minutes or less in all store categories. The only exception is club stores, where an average wait time slightly over four minutes is still acceptable. After four minutes, satisfaction levels drop significantly across the other seven categories.

One of the most surprising finds of the study is that 43 percent of consumers said long lines will affect their decision to shop a particular retailer in the future — and three percent of those consumers will stop visiting the store all together. "Retailers really have to focus on keeping their wait times under four minutes with the negative impact of even one minute more," said Tony Amador, senior vice president at M/A/R/C Research.