The empty shop window: A high street in retreat

As I walked down a local high street the other day, the same one I’ve known for years, something looked off. Where once vibrant shopfronts stood, were gaps. There were ‘To Let’ signs on display instead of goods, and familiar names disappearing. Storefronts shuttered and lights off.

Across the UK, and indeed globally, it is becoming increasingly likely to see shops closing their doors. The high street is shrinking as many retailers give up completely on their physical presence, opting for a digital-only footprint.

But here’s the tension: the push online isn’t just about cost savings and shifting habits. It’s also about risk. Because while online sales have skyrocketed, so too have fraud attempts, false positives, and payment disputes. Retailers who close stores to cut costs often find themselves absorbing new costs in the digital world: fraud losses, chargebacks, and lost sales from declined genuine customers.

And the people who feel this change most keenly aren’t the digital natives. They’re the generation for whom in-person shopping is still woven into everyday life: Baby Boomers.

Why the high street is fading

Retail analysts lately sound more like mourners than number crunchers. Behind every shuttered store is a story of rising rent, increased wages, ballooning energy bills, supply chain stress, and now, the rising cost of keeping fraudsters at bay online.

The numbers are stark: over 13,000+ high street shops closed in the UK in 2024, roughly 37 shops per day. And analysts predict that this year will see over 17,300 store closures, which puts 200,000 retail jobs at risk. Even icons aren’t immune. Homebase shut its remaining original stores in early 2025. And WHSmith sold its UK high street arm, keeping only its airport and station outlets.

But behind these headlines is another shift: for every brick-and-mortar store that closes, transactions are pushed online where fraud levels are significantly higher than in physical retail. The domino effect hits not only towns and communities, but also the very fabric of trust between retailers and their customers.

The Boomers’ dilemma

If you’ve ever shopped with an older family member, you’ll know the ritual: browsing the racks, touching products, chatting to the retail assistant, asking for help. For many Boomers, this isn’t just shopping, its confidence, reassurance, and connection.

In the UK, almost a third of shoppers aged 55+ prefer to shop in-store. In the US, that figure climbs to 60%. And here’s the critical point: Baby Boomers are the wealthiest generation, with the disposable income retailers can’t afford to ignore.

But when their trusted high street stores close, they’re pushed into digital channels they may not fully trust. Habits, usability concerns, and worries about online fraud all combine to create friction. The irony? The very customers with the greatest spending power are those most likely to feel excluded, inconvenienced, or wrongly declined when trying to shop online.

Where online trends and Boomer habits collide

Behind the scenes, retailers are doubling down on digital-first models: smaller showrooms, click-and-collect hubs, pure e-commerce platforms. But these transformations magnify the payments problem.

For Boomers especially, the path from “I like that product” to “I trust this payment will be safe” can feel like crossing a chasm. Fraud warnings, extra verification steps, declined cards all increase the risk they’ll abandon their basket, or worse, lose trust altogether.

In effect:

• Retailers see physical stores as expensive liabilities

• Boomers see physical stores as reliable anchors of trust, service, and safety

• Digital platforms offer scale and automation but open the door to fraud losses and false positives that cost retailers and frustrate customers.

The question is: can you collapse that gap? Not by dragging reluctant generations into cold e-commerce, nor by reverting to the old high street model, but by building a payments bridge that restores in-store levels of trust online.

Bringing the high street payments experience online

That bridge is CPoI®: Card-Present over Internet®. CPoI® delivers the exact same security, authorisation confidence, and fraud protection that customers have always trusted in-store. For Baby Boomers in particular, who have grown up with the reliability of chip-and-PIN, this restores the confidence they crave when moving into digital channels.

For retailers, the benefits are immediate. Fraud losses and chargebacks are dramatically reduced, taking pressure off already squeezed margins. Authorisation rates improve too, meaning genuine customers are less likely to be turned away by false positives - a costly and frustrating issue for shopper and merchant. At the same time, the trust that once lived in a physical checkout is rebuilt online, reassuring older customers that they can shop safely without second guessing every transaction. And because the experience feels natural and intuitive, retailers can protect their bottom line without adding friction to the customer journey.

The future of digital commerce relies on trust

When a 70-year-old loyal customer walks into their favourite store, they feel safe tapping their card. When that store closes and that same customer is asked to shop online, the stakes change. One fraudulent transaction, one declined order, one confusing security prompt, and the trust they had in the brand is gone, along with a customer who may have returned many times over.

Retailers can’t afford to let that happen. Not with the most affluent generation. Not with anyone.

With CPoI®, they don’t have to. By carrying the same level of security and assurance from the high street counter into the digital checkout, merchants can expect fewer losses, happier customers, and loyalty that lasts well beyond a single purchase.  

The future of retail isn’t a trade-off between efficiency and trust, but a bridge between them.