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Fashion used to run on a calendar. Operations and payment teams could forecast peak load months ahead and size capacity to match.
That calendar is breaking down. Social feeds, limited-edition drops, flash promotions, and the competitive pressure of fast fashion have changed what the demand curve looks like. ACI Worldwide’s 2026 research with YouGov, which surveyed more than 3,000 fashion and sportswear shoppers in the US and UK, shows how far that shift has gone.
For payment, operations, and commerce leaders in the fashion retail industry, a few key questions follow. If demand is more unpredictable, what can we control in the process? Can our infrastructure keep up, and what does it cost when it can’t?
Sales and promotional events trigger impulse buying
When ACI asked shoppers what triggers an impulse purchase, the top answers were not season-related. Sales and promotional events led at 41%, followed closely by urgently replacing an item (40%). Browsing in-store with nothing specific in mind came third at 33%, and special occasions fourth at 31%. Among sportswear shoppers, the share of those who impulse-buy in response to promotions rises to 49%.
Age makes it harder still. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 22% buy on impulse because of social media or influencer trends, double the 11% average across all age groups. This group also leads on limited-edition releases (14% versus 8% overall). A single post can create a traffic spike with no warning and no seasonal precedent.
These impulse-buying statistics show demand driven by moments rather than predictable retail cycles. They are difficult to forecast, difficult to plan for, and increasingly difficult to staff.
At the same time, the calendar’s biggest peak keeps getting bigger. Adobe Analytics data shows US Cyber Week 20251 generated $257.8 billion in online spending, up 7.7% year over year. Online apparel alone reached $49 billion across the 2025 holiday season, up 7.4%.
As peak demand grows, systems designed to absorb spikes must now sustain higher loads, for longer periods of time.
New shopping experiences are adding another layer of complexity. AI-powered recommendations and emerging agentic commerce models are creating entirely new paths to purchase. Consumers may find products through AI assistants, not search engines. More and more, they rely on AI agents to handle parts of buying.
A demand problem becomes a payments problem
Every unexpected demand spike puts pressure on the checkout experience. When traffic surges, even small weaknesses in online payments performance become visible. The result is not just slower checkouts. It leads to higher abandonment, more failed transactions, and lost revenue when retailers can best turn demand into sales. Customer experience matters, and now is the time to protect it.
A flash sale or a viral product doesn’t ask whether your payments infrastructure is ready. It sends the traffic, and the traffic needs to convert.
Cart abandonment is a long-standing problem, and the general trend has not changed much. The Baymard Institute2 estimates the average cart abandonment rate to be 70.22% in 2026, based on 50 studies of shopping cart abandonment. Much of that rate is unavoidable since many shoppers are just browsing. However, improvements to the checkout and payment processing processes could significantly increase cart conversion rates.
ACI’s survey data shows how fashion shoppers react to common issues during the payments process. Of those surveyed, 40% said they would abandon a purchase if an unexpected cost appeared at checkout. Another 19% said they would abandon it if their preferred payment method was unavailable.
Some of these issues sit in pricing and shipping policy. The rest, including reliability, speed, payment method coverage, authentication, and user experience, are payment and checkout challenges.
Discover more insights and see how shopping behavior, payment experiences, and consumer trust are shaping conversion, loyalty, and profitability for fashion and sportswear retailers
| Causes of checkout friction and cart abandonment | Overall |
|---|---|
| Surprise cost added at checkout | 40% |
| Website or app was not working properly | 26% |
| Checkout was too long or complicated | 22% |
| Preferred payment method was not available | 19% |
| Didn’t trust the checkout process | 17% |
| Payment failed or was declined | 16% |
| Authentication/security steps failed or too inconvenient | 15% |
The payment method gap is easy to underestimate
Nearly one in five shoppers (19%) abandoned a purchase because their preferred payment method wasn’t offered, according to ACI’s fashion research. That’s lost revenue a conversion report won’t explain, and at peak volumes it adds up fast.
The gap is hard to close because preferences vary by gender and age, even between similar markets. Debit cards lead across channels and countries, but US shoppers lean on credit cards and cash while UK shoppers favor debit and digital wallets.
Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 51% prefer digital wallets online, and about one in five online shoppers in both markets use buy now pay later methods. A single global payments mix will miss someone in every market, so always check which methods each market and customer segment actually uses.
What happens when payments fail?
More than half (53%) will try another payment method, and 47% try the same payment method again. But 39% give up on the purchase altogether, and 22% buy from another retailer. That last number matters most, because the loss goes beyond a single basket. A failed payment sends a motivated shopper directly to a competitor, and that is the real cost behind the title of this piece.
| Response to payments failure | Overall | US | UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Try a different payment method | 53% | 61% | 48% |
| Try again using the same payment method | 47% | 43% | 49% |
| Try to complete the purchase later | 42% | 35% | 46% |
| Give up on the purchase altogether | 39% | 40% | 39% |
| Purchase from another retailer | 22% | 22% | 23% |
The pattern varies by market, and it points to different recovery strategies:
- US shoppers are more likely to try another payment method (61% versus 48% in the UK), so offering alternatives at the point of failure is the lever.
- UK shoppers are more likely to postpone and retry later (46% versus 35% in the US), so the priority is a smooth, low-friction return path.
The people most sensitive to checkout friction are often the most valuable customers
Women lead hybrid shopping and app adoption, yet they are less forgiving at checkout. Abandonment over a surprise cost is 46% among women versus 35% among men, and abandonment over a site or app that isn’t working is 31% versus 21%. After a payment failure, 43% of women give up on the purchase entirely, compared with 33% of men. Men are more likely to switch retailers (26% versus 20%).
Age follows a similar pattern. Sensitivity peaks among 25- to 34-year-olds, 44% of whom abandon over a surprise cost, compared with 36% of those aged 55 to 65. Younger shoppers are also the most open to new payment methods. If you optimize your checkout for the average shopper, you under-serve the segments that matter most.
What can retailers do before peak season
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday approaching, the actions with the most impact are mostly about reliability and recovery.
- Load-test for spikes.
Holiday week is the biggest peak retailers will see, so test against it. But use the exercise to build the ability to scale on demand all year, because promotional and social-driven surges can hit without warning. Latency and downtime during a flash sale are lost conversions you will never see in a report. - Measure your failed transactions rate by segment.
An average hides the problem. Break out declines and failures by market, payment method, device, and customer segment, then look at where the gaps are widest. - Treat declines as recoverable.
Most causes of payment failure are addressable. ACI’s merchant data indicates that for large retailers, a 2–6% improvement in payment acceptance rates can translate into millions in recovered revenue. Data-driven payments optimization and intelligent retry logic are among the fastest ways to reduce cart abandonment. - Localize payment methods.
Add wallets, alternative payment methods, and BNPL where your data shows demand. Choose a payments partner that can help you enable methods across markets. - Remove the surprises.
With 40% abandoning over unexpected costs, showing shipping, taxes, and fees early is one of the easiest steps in eCommerce conversion rate optimization. - Prevent fraud without blocking good customers.
Overly strict fraud rules decline legitimate shoppers, and those false declines cost sales and trust.
Check if your payments processor uses smart fraud tools that score risk in real time. Approve trusted customers with no extra steps. Add friction only when risk is high. Review your false-decline rate alongside your fraud rate, since optimizing for one alone can hurt the other.
The takeaway
Fashion retailers are facing unpredictable demand and changing consumer behavior is making forecasting even more difficult. Impulse purchases, social media influence, AI-powered recommendations, and rapidly changing trends can create significant spikes in demand with little warning.
As holiday shopping event spikes continue to grow and new AI-driven purchasing journeys emerge, the cost of payment friction increases. Every failed transaction represents not only a lost sale, but a missed opportunity to capture demand that may never return.
When those moments occur, payment performance becomes a critical factor in determining whether demand translates into revenue. As competition intensifies and growth becomes harder to earn, reducing payment friction is no longer just a checkout optimization exercise. It is a revenue strategy. The retailers best positioned for future growth will not necessarily be those that generate the most demand, but those that convert it wherever and however it appears.
To see how checkout friction, payment methods, returns and AI readiness compare across the US and UK, download the full report, The New Rules of Fashion and Sportswear Payments.
FAQs
Why do fashion shoppers abandon their carts at checkout?
The leading checkout abandonment reasons in ACI’s survey of US and UK fashion shoppers were surprise costs added at checkout (40%), a website or app not working properly (26%), and a checkout that was too long or complicated (22%). Further reasons were a missing preferred payment method (19%), distrust of the checkout process (17%), a failed or declined payment (16%), and authentication steps that failed or were inconvenient (15%).
How does impulse buying affect payments infrastructure?
Impulse purchases are triggered by sales and promotions (41% of shoppers), urgent replacement needs (40%), and social media or influencer trends, which drive 22% of 18- to 24-year-olds. These triggers produce sudden traffic spikes that don’t follow the seasonal calendar. Payments infrastructure has to scale instantly, because latency or downtime at the moment of intent turns directly into lost conversions.
What do fashion shoppers do when a payment fails?
According to ACI’s research, 53% fashion shoppers try a different payment method and 47% retry with the same one. However, 39% abandon the purchase altogether and 22% buy from another retailer. US shoppers are more likely to switch payment method (61%), while UK shoppers are more likely to delay and try again later (46%).
How do retailers find the payment method mix that maximizes conversion?
Analyze your payment workflows to find where payments fail or friction builds up. Start with the shopper’s context: country, industry, and device. Local payment preferences matter. Offer at least the top three methods in each market. Doing so, rather than only offering the most popular one, has been shown to lift conversions by up to 30%. In many markets, offering the right alternative payment methods also signals legitimacy and builds trust.
Also, consider dynamic payment method selection. Use smart tools that decide which methods to show based on the shopper’s pre-assessed risk, using signals like shipping address and device. The check runs before the payment page, so shoppers see the right options and fraud risk stays lower.
Fine-tune authentication and routing strategies so legitimate payments get approved and routed efficiently. Finally, keep measuring. Track conversion rate and usage for each method, and adjust as needed.
ACI Worldwide powers electronic payments for financial institutions, retailers and processors around the world with its broad and integrated suite of electronic payment software.