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2025 is upon us, and, as is tradition, the NMI Executive Leadership Team has put together our predictions for what the biggest trends in payments will be in the year ahead. This year, my focus is on the proliferation of contactless payments, both at the point of sale and beyond. Specifically, in 2025 I believe we’ll see:
- A big leap in tap-to-mobile payment adoption as merchants look for cheaper and more convenient ways to get paid
- Wearable near-field communication (NFC) payment technology growing beyond a novelty to become mainstream
- Contactless payments integrating with a wider range of consumer products
I’ve recapped some of the main ideas below, but to see my full thoughts and four other sets of predictions from the NMI Executive Leadership team in our upcoming whitepaper, “From Frictionless to Future-Ready: NMI’s Payment Trends & Predictions for 2025.”
Tap-to-Mobile Solutions Will Supplant Traditional Hardware as Merchant Favorites
Today, 71% of merchants expect software to replace traditional payment terminals.
Physical terminals come with their share of problems, especially for small- and medium-sized (SMB) businesses that may not have the funds to purchase or maintain expensive hardware. Instead, many merchants are looking for simpler, tech-forward alternatives that more closely match the streamlined, cost-effective and user-friendly selling experiences they’re used to online.
We recently surveyed 1,000 consumers about their payment interests in 2025. Eighty-one percent of respondents said that it was important or very important for the merchants they shop from to offer flexible payment services, with 43% saying that it could be a deciding factor in whether they choose to support a business or not — making flexible payments crucial for merchants.
Tap-to-mobile solutions like mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) and software POS (SoftPOS) systems are the obvious successor to the traditional terminal, and many merchants already employ them successfully. Take the Apple Store, for example, which equips its employees with iPhones for payments, inventory lookup and more.
mPOS systems use a POS app and a companion card reader that connects to the merchant’s mobile device with either USB-C or Bluetooth. SoftPOS, on the other hand, makes things even simpler by using a smart device’s built-in NFC capabilities to enable tap payments. This allows merchants to download an app and go, accepting payments with only their tablet or smartphone.
Both mPOS and SoftPOS solutions make an enormous amount of sense for merchants for multiple reasons:
- Cost: Because mPOS and SoftPOS solutions use the devices a merchant likely already owns, they’re generally a cheaper option than purpose-built hardware
- Comfort: Most merchants are comfortable using smartphones and tablets, which makes the user experience friendlier than traditional hardware that requires training to use and maintain
- Simplicity: Getting a new payment device up and running is as simple as downloading an app and spending a few minutes setting it up
- Updatability: Updating a tap-to-mobile solution to include the latest features just requires a quick trip to the app store, making it much easier for merchants to keep their payment systems up-to-date
- Portability: mPOS and SoftPOS systems can go anywhere a merchant’s phone does. As long as there’s a connection, a merchant can get paid
Together, these qualities make tap-to-mobile some of the most cost-effective, flexible and user-friendly in-person payment systems available today. As merchants look for ways to simplify and improve the payments experience — both for themselves and their customers — I believe we’ll see more businesses reject traditional payments hardware in favor of tap-to-mobile solutions.
Arguably, the biggest barrier is a lack of consumer familiarity with the technology, which could lead to some customers being hesitant to tap their card or digital wallet on a merchant’s phone. But as the technology becomes more and more common and both customers and merchants gain an understanding of how secure tap-to-mobile payments are, that barrier will fall quickly, and adoption will skyrocket.
Contactless Payments in Your Clothes, Your Car and Who Knows Where Else
In 2025, I believe contactless payments will continue to spread beyond our traditional understanding of where payments “should” take place to be incorporated into other areas of our daily lives. Increased digital wallet adoption for in-store payments, combined with a wider variety of practical wearables, will help products like smartwatches, jewelry and even garments become more mainstream ways to pay. We’ll also start to see contactless payment technology pop up in more unique places with the goal of streamlining specialized payments everywhere, from the gas pump to the ski hill and beyond.
While it may sound futuristic, it’s clear that consumers are already interested in this type of payment technology. In our recent survey, 20% of respondents said that they already have payments embedded into one of their devices and found it “very convenient.” An additional 19% said they planned to use wearables or IoT technology for payments in the future.
You can read more about these predictions and other valuable insights from my colleagues on the NMI Executive Leadership Team in our upcoming whitepaper, “From Frictionless to Future-Ready: NMI’s Payment Trends & Predictions for 2025.”
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