Millennial Parents Demand Frictionless Checkouts

Millennials are entering their peak earning and spending years — and as more Millennials begin to start families, their influence as consumers continues to grow. To help your merchants meet their expectations, it’s crucial to understand how this demographic prefers to shop and pay. That’s why we conducted a survey in late 2025, of 1,000 Millennial parents across the U.S. to ask about their holiday shopping plans, payment preferences (online and in-store) and more.

Let’s take a look at some of the trends we saw from the data and the key lessons they offer payment providers and merchants looking to serve this important demographic, including:

• Logged-in checkout is the top choice online
• In-store shopping is still king, but long lines are the main reasons Millennials decide to shop online instead
• Millennials love spending with small businesses, but they won’t sacrifice a quick, seamless checkout experience to do it
• Many Millennials are willing to pay more if it means a faster, easier checkout

In the payments industry, there used to be a strong belief that asking shoppers to log in to an ecommerce site created too much friction. Many people didn’t want to remember usernames and passwords, so retailers focused heavily on guest checkout and avoided account logins altogether. 

That mindset is changing. Our research shows that, at least for Millennials in 2025, they are no longer put off by logging in. In fact, they often prefer it, as long as it makes checkout faster.

When asked which online checkout experience they prefer, Millennials chose:

• One-click checkouts, like the kind offered by Amazon (28%)
• Digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc (26%)
• Paying directly within a retailer’s app with saved account details (25%)
• Traditional checkout (22%)

Almost 80% of respondents prefer a streamlined checkout that involves being logged into some type of account. 

Why? Because logging in today is quick and painless. Face ID, fingerprint scans and password managers mean most shoppers don’t feel like they’re ‘logging in’ at all. Once they’re authenticated, their payment details are already saved, so checkout happens in seconds. And these preferences  are almost certainly just as strong, if not stronger among Gen Z.

The Lesson: Guest checkout still matters for first-time or occasional shoppers. But relying on guest checkout alone means missing what most modern shoppers actually want: fast, secure, logged-in checkouts with saved payment details. 

We’ve previously highlighted Gen Z’s growing affinity for in-store shopping. While Millennials are less likely to go the brick-and-mortar route, they’re still 30% more likely to shop in stores versus online.

We asked Millennial parents why they shop in stores during the holidays, and by far the top reason was the experience. Two-thirds of respondents said they opt to shop in the real world because they can see, touch and try items before buying. Additionally, 40% cited the immediate gratification of getting to take an item home right away. That data falls in line with one of the most well-established characteristics of Millennial shoppers and young consumers in general: They’re experience-driven.

And the primary reason respondents told us they’d choose to shop online? Unsurprisingly, it’s to avoid lines and crowds (64%). This is another example of maximizing the experience. Similarly, when we asked what headache they wished technology could remove from the holiday shopping experience, the top answer was long checkout lines.

The Lesson: Young consumers want to visit brick-and-mortar stores, but the biggest thing deterring them is the prospect of waiting in line. There are a variety of mobile payment solutions merchants can employ to relieve the congestion at the front checkout, and doing so may be all it takes to draw young customers away from major web platforms.

In 2024, our research found that Millennials are more supportive of local, small businesses than any other generation. Ninety percent said gifts from local outlets are more thoughtful, 83% said they’d pay more to help small businesses and 81% said they’re more likely to shop small during challenging times. That makes Millennials both an ally and an opportunity for small retailers. 

But there’s a catch.

In this year’s survey, our Millennial respondents made it very clear that they expect small businesses to offer the same frictionless shopping and checkout experiences that big merchants do. When asked about checkout preferences, 68% of Millennial parents, including 72% of dads, said it’s important that small local retailers offer the same modern checkout options as big box stores. That includes contactless options, QR codes, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), etc.

The Lesson: Small businesses that embrace modern payments tech give Millennial shoppers the complete experience they’re looking for — the satisfaction of shopping small combined with the ability to exit the store quickly and conveniently. That makes modernizing payments an easy way to gain an edge, especially in a tight economy.

One reason many small merchants fall behind on updating their payments tech is the assumption that modern checkout solutions are too expensive to justify. But our survey suggests otherwise. For Millennial shoppers, convenience at checkout isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s something they’re willing to pay for. That means investing in a better payments experience could actually help drive more revenue.

Three-fourths of respondents, including 80% of high earners, told us that convenience is worth paying extra for. That’s a huge majority, and it reflects the fact that experiences are key and that Millennials understand that their time has value.

The Lesson: Giving younger consumers access to the payment options they prefer doesn’t just bring them through the door — it encourages them to spend more once they’re inside. For brick-and-mortar merchants, that makes modernizing checkout and payments less of a cost center and more of a revenue opportunity.

Just like the Millennials they want to attract, your merchants are chasing convenience — and often, that means sticking with the status quo. But doing nothing comes at a cost. Our data shows that outdated checkout and payment experiences are already holding retailers back. And as younger consumers like Millennials and Gen Z take up more market share, the price of falling behind will only grow.

So, how do you get your merchants to modernize without the friction they fear or the high costs they expect?

The answer is our turnkey, modular payments ecosystem. As an NMI partner, you get access to a complete, end-to-end suite of payments systems that allow you to quickly and easily build customized solutions for each merchant and to deploy them with little to no business interruption. That ease-of-upgrade is often the difference between bringing a merchant to the cutting edge of payments and seeing them fall behind.

For merchants looking to improve their payments in 2026 and beyond, that includes:

• The newest in-store hardware options, including fully-mobile tap to pay systems that enable merchants to take payments anywhere in store or on the go, using nothing but a smartphone
• A wide variety of modern payment options, including turnkey support for all the most popular digital wallets, both online and off
• Industry-best payments orchestration that ensures a seamless omnichannel experience for merchants who sell online, in store and even across mobile and social media channels
• Frictionless loyalty programs that track spending both online and off
• A wide range of self-serve and unattended options for merchants looking to offer self-checkout lanes or kiosks

And now, you can even offer your small retail merchants access to instant, third-party small business loans through NMI Business Capital, our new and frictionless embedded lending solution.

To find out more about how NMI can make modernizing your merchants’ payments a painless experience, reach out to a member of our team today.