Most people have stood in a queue while the card machine drops out. A new study says the cost of those moments is a lot bigger than a few grumbles.
Payments company FreedomPay surveyed 2,000 Australian consumers and 200 business managers for the research, which it produced with FT Longitude. It found up to AU$3.1 billion in annual retail and hospitality sales is at risk from payment failures.
Businesses in the study report an average of five payment disruptions a year. The average outage lasts 136 minutes, according to the report.
Five minutes to fix it
Shoppers don't wait anywhere near that long. FreedomPay says Australians tolerate delays of up to five minutes before frustration sets in, and they abandon the purchase at 10 to 11 minutes. In the UK, the same research found shoppers hold out for seven minutes and 13 minutes.
During their last disruption, 18% of consumers walked away from a purchase. FreedomPay estimates that cost AU$554 million in immediate lost sales.
Chris Kronenthal, President of FreedomPay, said: "Australia's rapid transition toward a cashless economy means payment resilience is directly tied to business survival and customer trust. 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."
He added: "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."
Trust is part of it. Among digital first shoppers, 71% say a single payment failure permanently reduces their trust in a business. Gen Z (72%) and Millennials (65%) are the most likely to complain or post negative reviews, the study found.
They also carry less cash. Only 16% of Millennials and 13% of Gen Z always carry it, compared with 48% of Baby Boomers.
Other Australian research points the same way on delivery. Shippit's 2026 State of Shipping Report, covered by Dynamic Business, found 68% of shoppers say they are unlikely to return to a retailer after a bad delivery experience, up from 64% last year.
Peak hours, biggest risk
More than half of disruptions (53%) happen during peak trading windows, according to FreedomPay. It lists those as 3pm to 6pm for retail and 6pm to midnight for hospitality.
The timing matters because 95% of Australian card payments are now contactless, the study says. When the system goes down at those hours, there's little else for a customer to reach for.
Power cuts lead the list
Power outages are the biggest source of disruption. FreedomPay puts AU$1.126 billion (37%) of annual sales at risk from them, followed by POS system failures at AU$730 million (24%).
About 78% of businesses in the study agree that power outages, extreme weather or cyber incidents pose a growing threat to payment continuity.
Plan before it happens
The backup picture is mixed. FreedomPay found 18% of businesses rely on cash alone if payments fail, and only 53% use offline card processing.
Piers Tomlinson, Editorial Director, Commercial Content and Thought Leadership at the Financial Times, said: "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. 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."
State small business bodies say the answer starts with a written plan. The NSW Small Business Commission says a business continuity plan helps owners work out which parts of the business matter most and how to protect them during a disruption. It says a plan can cover backing up important data, putting together an emergency kit, training staff in key roles and keeping customers informed. It also suggests planning ahead for cashflow, insurance and access to key documents.
NSW Small Business Commissioner Chris Lamont said: "Business continuity planning is a great way for business operators to think about how they would navigate a crisis and how to ensure important information is at hand to support a quick response."
Business Queensland says a plan sets out what to do before, during and after an unexpected event. It recommends a go-to kit with response checklists and contacts. It also suggests running simulations with staff to see how quickly they can find the plan and carry out the checklists.
For card terminals, the bank or provider is the place to start. Westpac, for example, says its EFTPOS terminals have an electronic fall back mode, which stores transactions offline and sends them to the bank once the network is restored. Contactless payments can't be processed in that mode, so customers need to insert or swipe their card, and transaction limits apply.
The NSW Small Business Commission's guide, Prepare for the unexpected, includes templates and checklists for building a plan.