London, United Kingdom – 1st November, 2011 - Computop, a leading payment service provider (PSP), has carried-out research which shows a monthly growth of over 100 per cent in the use of guaranteed payment on invoice, between German retailers and shoppers. Whilst credit cards remain the predominant payment choice in the UK, the preference amongst German consumers for direct debits and invoices has historically deterred UK retailers from moving successfully into the World's second largest eCommerce market.

However, transaction history from Computop's payment platform from June to September 2011 shows a marked increase in the use of secure invoice payment. The number of transactions with invoice payment methods such as Billpay, Billsafe, RatePAY and Klarna duplicates on a monthly basis. The rise in the use of these alternatives mean that the tricky issue of international charge-backs and protection against payment default, become much less of a headache for UK merchants. Moreover, offering payment on invoice in countries like Germany or The Netherlands, drastically reduces order abandonments and boosts turnover in online stores.

Stephen Berry, UK country manager for Computop commented, "In light of this trend, UK retailers that are not already selling into Germany should be reassessing their eCommerce strategies and consider taking advantage of the German market share."

He continued, "Germany's shoppers already conduct more than 10 percent* of their total online spend with UK online shops.  The country is home to the most online consumers in Europe and Forrester recently cited that they expect that 43 million German consumers will spend €62 billion in 2011.  That 10 percent equates to €6bn of sales that are currently going to competitors of retailers that are not equipped to sell into Germany."

*e-Commerce Report - Trends in E-Commerce Purchasing and Payment Behaviour on the Basis of Real-Life Transactions 2010 by Deutsche Card Services