Along with four of my colleagues on NMI’s Executive Leadership Team, I recently prepared my 2025 predictions for our report, “From Frictionless to Future-Ready: NMI’s Payment Trends & Predictions for 2025.”
This year, I chose to focus on how the lines are blurring in two core areas of payments: in-person and online environments and the relationship between payments and the wider world of commerce.
In this article, I’ll examine the changing relationship between payments and other industries. In 2025, I expect a realignment of payments within the broader commerce landscape, blurring the line between who is and isn’t a payments company. This shift will push the industry beyond its traditional role as the nucleus of commerce to that of an enabler of more modular, industry-specific, all-in-one solutions.
Merchant Demand for Simpler Solutions is Driving a Shift in Payments
For decades, most merchants accessed payment processing through a payments company. No matter what they sold (or how they sold it), if they were taking credit card payments, they would get their merchant account, hardware and software from a vendor that specialized in payments. That positioned the industry as a central hub within commerce, with payments acting as a standalone feature that every merchant had to source and then integrate into their daily operations.
With over 30 million small businesses in the U.S., one thing is clear: they all need a way to get paid. But payments aren’t their primary focus — it’s simply a means to enable their business operations. Navigating the ever-growing number of payment options, regulations and scheme rules has become increasingly complex, leaving small business owners searching for simpler, smarter solutions.
Today’s merchants demand the same things from payments that consumers do, including convenience, speed and low friction. However, they also want simple payment options, which means most businesses want to engage with fewer vendors in favor of deeper relationships with one or two partners that can do more for them.
Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are increasingly looking for highly vertical, all-in-one platforms — one-stop shops that can offer them more value in a simpler package, with a single bill and a single relationship. They want solutions that consolidate scheduling, inventory, marketing and payments into a central platform.
This shift allows SMBs to streamline operations and focus on what truly matters: growing their business. It also opens the door for payment specialists to take on a new role as add-on enablers for highly vertical, industry-specific solutions.
Industry Solution Providers are Absorbing the Payments Role
Payments used to sit at the nucleus of commerce, serving as the central hub for monetizing transactions. But in 2025, the focus is shifting. Payments are increasingly becoming an add-on feature that complements a suite of vertical-specific tools, from healthcare to the service industry to recreational software platforms.
The good news for payments providers is that although the industry is changing, vertical solutions like niche-specific software platforms still need help facilitating payments.
Industry-specific solution providers, such as SaaS platforms, need frictionless payment capabilities to compete, but they don’t have (or want) the internal expertise or experience necessary to run a payments business effectively. Instead, software providers want to outsource responsibility for all the complex parts of payments — like new technologies, underwriting, regulatory compliance and security — while continuing to earn a cut of the fees generated by their platforms.
That means that while other industries once entered payments to learn and monetize, payments experts are now infiltrating non-financial industries. Instead of companies coming to payments for services, payments companies and experts are beginning to head out onto the trade show circuit to seek out opportunities elsewhere. By offering API-first and white-labeled solutions, payments providers are empowering businesses to integrate seamlessly, enabling payments to live within broader ecosystems.
The Takeaway
Small businesses and software companies alike are looking for simple, integrated solutions to navigate the complexities of payments. For payments providers, this means moving beyond standalone services to offer all-in-one platforms and becoming true partners in growth. The future of payments lies in expertise, simplification, and helping businesses put their customers at the center of their operations.
Is your payments strategy ready for this evolution? Let’s talk.
For more of my thoughts on how industry lines will shift and blur in 2025 and insights into four other key topics from my colleagues, take a look at our whitepaper, “From Frictionless to Future-Ready: NMI’s Payment Trends & Predictions for 2025.”
To learn more, reach out to a member of our team today.
