Six Months Later: Shopper Attitudes Toward CHIP CARDS (EMV) on the Decline

Half a year ago, mobile solutions firm Field Agent surveyed 300 chip card (EMV) users across the country to gauge their attitudes toward the then-new payment processing system.

The results, well, they weren’t exactly glowing.

At the time, 63% of shoppers said the new EMV processing system was more time-consuming compared to conventional methods, and, altogether, more than 6-in-10 said they preferred good old-fashioned swipin’ to this new-fandangled approach of inserting a card.

One would expect these attitudes to improve with time—as bugs get worked out, as shoppers become more familiar, as retailers adopt EMV technology more widely.

One would...expect.

But six months later, a new mobile survey by Field Agent suggests shopper attitudes aren’t yet sweetening toward chip cards, indeed, they may be souring.

Update: Shopper Attitudes toward Chip Cards (EMV)

As a follow-up to its initial survey, Field Agent surveyed an additional 305 chip card users at the beginning of October, repeating practically the same questions from half a year ago. Note: For both surveys, respondents qualified for participation by submitting a picture of their chip cards.

See Also: Field Agent’s Guide to Holiday Shoppers 2016

From this more recent survey, Field Agent found:

• 64% of chip cards users say they’re no more than moderately satisfied with EMV processing
• 71% believe using a chip card is slower than swiping a card, and only 13% say it’s faster
• 55% find using a chip card a slow process in general, compared to 29% who say it’s fast
• 7-in-10 shoppers say they’d rather swipe a conventional card than insert a chip card

As the exhibit shows, Field Agent’s research suggests attitudes toward EMV processing could, surprisingly, be on the decline. For instance, over the last six months, preferences for swiping over inserting have risen 7 percentage points, from 63% in April to 70% in October.

Shoppers Get a Chip Off Their Shoulders

So what’s not to like?

That is, what are shoppers’ top complaints with EMV payment processing?

See Also: Field Agent’s Guide to Holiday Shoppers 2016

Field Agent had previously asked shoppers to share their frustrations with chip card processing as a free form, open-ended question. From the resulting qualitative data, the mobile solutions firm distilled a variety of common complaints shoppers associate with chip card usage.

More recently, Field Agent presented these potential complaints to a new sample of 305 shoppers, this time as a multiple-choice question. As the graphic shows, we’re now starting to understand the major reasons—chief among them: uneven adoption by retailers and time costs—why shoppers are yet to embrace EMV processing.

So while EMV processing may hold certain advantages over conventional payment methods, shoppers, this latest survey suggests, don’t necessarily appreciate them yet.

Free Report: The Digital Shopper

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• The digital shopper’s journey: before, during, and after shopping for groceries online
• Shoppers try and rate Instacart delivery
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• Shoppers compare PDPs on Walmart.com VS Amazon.com
• Shoppers try and rate Amazon Lockers at Whole Foods Market

Best of all, the report is free.