Capterra's 2025 Tech Trends survey highlights the key factors influencing software purchase success and regret among UK businesses
Software buying can be a major investment for companies and is expected to grow this year. However, getting the process wrong can be costly. In fact, 57% of UK businesses regret at least one software purchase made in the past 18 months. Capterra conducted a survey on 3,500 business software buyers in nine countries, with 350 in the UK, to gather insights into how businesses are evaluating and purchasing software.
The survey unveils the following lessons from UK software buyers who were happy with their purchases over the past 18 months:
- Align on goals early on: A third of regretful buyers would clarify their company goals and desired outcomes better to avoid a bad purchase in the future. It's easy to get caught up in the hype of new technology. By aligning on goals early in the process, businesses can ensure they're adopting software with a realistic plan for integrating and using the technology.
- Form a shorter initial list: Most (72%) successful buyers tend to list fewer items (between 1 and 4) when collating possible software options on their initial list, compared to regretful buyers (59%).
- Listen to users and industry experts: Successful buyers use expert advice (56%), customer testimonials (48%), and review comparison sites (47%) to assess their choices. Overall, these information sources are leveraged by more satisfied buyers than by regretful buyers.
- Trust objective, third-party sites: 70% of successful buyers are more likely to trust review and comparison sites over vendor sites for gauging customer satisfaction. While vendor sites can help buyers learn more about product features and specifications, third-party review sites offer objective analyses and comparisons between products.
- Try before you buy: Software buyers who try a product first via a product trial or online demonstration are less likely to regret their purchase. For example, significantly more satisfied software buyers (72%) carried out a product trial, compared to regretful buyers (51%).
Following these insights from successful software buyers can help UK businesses avoid the financial and operational consequences of a poor software purchase. In fact, Capterra's survey shows that bad software purchases in the UK have led to a series of undesirable consequences for businesses, such as increased costs (56%), reduced productivity (42%), and security vulnerabilities (35%).
"There's a lot to learn from the 43% of UK companies that had successful software purchases. Just like companies tend to analyse their competitors' marketing or sales strategies, they should also pay closer attention to how other businesses make decisions during the software buying process. Not only is this essential in helping disappointed buyers make the right tech choices, but also helps businesses remain efficient and at a competitive advantage for years to come," says David Jani, UK Analyst for Capterra.
For more insights and expert advice on how to make the right software purchases for your business in 2025, read Capterra's full report here.
About Capterra
Capterra is the #1 B2B marketplace for organisations to find the right software. Our platform connects buyers to over 2 million verified user reviews about products spanning 1,000 categories and offers actionable, objective insights and recommendations to help them find the best product for their specific business needs.
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