Pride’s biggest queues shouldn’t be at the checkout  

For small businesses, seasonal events can define the year. You spend months preparing – stocking shelves, hiring extra staff, planning campaigns – hoping to turn a surge of customers into lasting growth.  At Make Up or Break Up, Pride Month and the lead up to Manchester Pride Weekend in August aren’t just celebrations, they’re our busiest and most important trading period. As the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ store, with both an online and brick-and-mortar presence, we see demand spike as customers get ready for parades, parties and events across the city. 

And like many small businesses in peak season, it’s easy to focus on the obvious pressures: inventory, staffing and marketing. But we’ve learned – sometimes the hard way – that one of the  biggest risks sits right at the point of sale.  Because in today’s economy, getting customers through the door is only half the battle. If they have to queue too long, can’t pay the way they want to or hit friction at the checkout, that sale can disappear in seconds.  With payments evolving rapidly and expectations higher than ever, having the right infrastructure in place is the difference between capturing peak demand and missing out on the very growth those moments promise. 

Pride is more than a celebration – it’s a driver of growth 
When we launched Make Up or Break Up in 2014, we were a small independent shop with a simple mission: create a welcoming space for Manchester’s LGBTQ+ community. Today, we’re ten times our original size, with nearly 4,000 products and customers both in-store and online. Alongside our huge range of Pride accessories, we’re also home to the UK’s biggest range of biodegradable glitters, face gems, Crazy Color and Manic Panic hair dyes. 

Over the years, we’ve seen just how dramatically events like Pride can shift trading patterns. In a matter of weeks, footfall surges, online traffic rises and we welcome a wave of new customers discovering us for the first time.  And unlike predictable retail peaks, many of these purchases are last minute. Someone needs face glitter before a parade, a flag for a party that night or a last-minute outfit for the weekend ahead. In these moments, convenience is everything. Customers want to find what they need and check out instantly.  This creates a huge opportunity for growth but also puts pressure on every part of the business, particularly a business’s payment system.

Customers no longer distinguish between payments and experience
Located in Afflecks in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, our store attracts a mix of students, tourists, and younger shoppers – all digital natives who are used to fast, seamless experiences and expect that same ease when they come to pay.  Early on, we realised that payments couldn’t just be an afterthought. We needed a system that could handle high transaction volumes at peak times, work seamlessly with our website and Shopify and still feel like part of our brand – not a clunky hand off to a third-party. That’s what led us to partner with Global Payments. 

But more importantly, it changed how we think about the customer journey. Because customers don’t see payments as a separate step – they see it as part of the overall experience.  If someone finds exactly what they want but then hits a slow checkout, limited payment options or a disjointed process, that friction can quickly undo the entire interaction. And for a business like ours where volumes are high and basket sizes are often small, those lost transactions add up fast.  

Building a payments strategy around customer behaviour
Understanding how your customers want to pay today is one thing, but small businesses also need to be ready for how those habits are changing. We’re already seeing that shift play out in real time. According to the latest Global Payments Report, digital wallet spending in the UK is set to rise sharply over the next few years – from £269bn in 2025 to £453bn by 2030 – a 68% increase. And on the shop floor that’s reflected in what we see every day – more customers reaching for Apple Pay, Google Pay and other wallet-based options, especially among younger shoppers. 

For us, it’s a clear signal. If you don’t offer the payment methods your customers expect, you’re effectively putting friction in front of a sale at the worst possible moment.  Adapting to that shift has become a core part of how we think about growth. And the benefits go beyond customer experience alone. Faster, more efficient payment systems help improve cash flow, reduce operational strain during peak periods and give us better visibility into how the business is performing.  At a time when many small businesses are navigating ongoing economic pressure, those gains aren’t just incremental – they can make a real impact on profitability and efficiency.

Heavy traffic periods are increasingly won or lost at checkout
Pride Month creates a huge opportunity for growth – introducing businesses to new customers and strengthening relationships with existing ones. But making the most of those moments takes more than great products. It means keeping pace with how customers want to pay and having the infrastructure in place to handle the surge in demand.  We’ve learned that nothing should stand between a customer and completing their purchase. During peak trading periods, the difference between winning a sale and losing one often comes down to the final few seconds of the customer journey.  The small businesses that succeed in these moments are the ones that treat payments as part of the customer experience and a driver of growth in its own right.