The upward trajectory of the mobile payments industry is expected to continue in 2026, following the trends seen across the first half of the decade, according to a study released by Epos Now.
Survey data shows that card is still king, but mobile payment methods are continuing to see huge market growth. In 12 months, over 50% of merchants saw an increase in contactless payments.
Key takeaways:
· Merchants identified contactless payments (70.2%) and digital/mobile wallets (62.7%) as the main payment trends they expect to see impacting their business in the next 3-5 years.
· Merchants report a 95.5% cash acceptance rate, nearly the same as for contactless payments, and while 50% of them have seen an increase in contactless usage, 30.9% reported it staying the same, and nearly 20% saw a decrease.
· Merchants report just a 3% acceptance of buy now-pay later schemes, 2.5% acceptance of QR code payments, and a 0% acceptance of cryptocurrency.
· High transaction fees (77.6%) are the dominant challenge faced by merchants, far outpacing all other concerns in the area. This is reinforced by further data, with business owners citing lower transaction fees (50.8%) as the single improvement that would most enhance their payment system experience. For most businesses in 2025, the "evolution" isn't about looking forward to new tech, but about making the existing, necessary tech more affordable.
· The last year has seen “artificial intelligence” become synonymous with growth within the business world. Only 2.5% of merchants are actively using AI features, and nearly 50% have no plans to adopt. 73.2% of merchants rated emerging tech and trends as important to their business outlook.
· More AI-positive merchants have named several expected benefits, including improved fraud detection and prevention (44.8%); personalized customer experiences (43.3%); smarter sales and payment insights (37.8%); reduced human error (38.3%); and better inventory/payment forecasting (30.4%).
· Ultimately, the “evolution of transactions in 2026” won’t be about adopting new payment types. Instead, businesses are working towards optimizing their digital cores: making established systems faster, more secure, and cheaper.
