New NMI Report Finds Convenience and Speed Drive Consumers’ Eagerness to Try New Payments Innovations

SCHAUMBURG, IL – JANUARY 17, 2023 – NMI, a leading full commerce enablement technology company, today released its inaugural Payments Innovation Pulse Report that focuses on consumer sentiment around the latest payment innovations and how these opinions impact merchants, technology partners and financial institutions.

To take the pulse of consumer payments preferences and experiences on the latest payments tools and methods and their willingness to try new payment innovations, NMI surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers in October 2022. It uncovered that the majority of consumers are willing and eager to try emerging payments technologies, such as contactless payments and biometric payments, and that speed and convenience are the driving forces behind these purchasing preferences.

“The pandemic sparked a new wave of payments innovations, and we’re still seeing the ripple effects of consumers adopting these tools and merchants equipping themselves with these capabilities,” said Vijay Sondhi, CEO at NMI. “As businesses look for ways to retain customers and entice new ones, leaning on their ISO, ISV and fintech partners will be a crucial part of their payments enablement strategy this year to help merchants easily implement these payment capabilities and win their share of the market.”

Key findings from the report include:

• Speed and convenience reign king in consumers’ payments preferences: The majority of consumers (84%) cite convenience as the No. 1 reason why they use their preferred payment methods, and just under half (49%) use these methods because they’re the fastest.

• Gen Z and Millennials eager to be early adopters of new payments innovations: Over two-thirds (69%) of consumers agree that they’re “always excited to try out new payments technologies or capabilities.” Younger consumers are even more likely to report eagerness: 83% of consumers ages 18-24 and 87% of consumers ages 25-40 agree or strongly agree.

• Contactless payments continue to dominate as biometrics and BNPL gain ground: Sixty-nine percent of consumers have made in-person purchases using contactless payments technology in the past six months compared to 54% who have made a purchase using BNPL and 36% who have used biometric payment methods to make a purchase.

• Financial institutions and card issuers are mission-critical in the adoption of new payments technology: Forty-six percent of consumers find out about new payments technologies or capabilities with their current payments tool from their bank or financial institution while 38% learn about new technologies or capabilities from their credit or debit card issuer.

In addition to the quantitative findings, NMI’s report provides steps merchants and their payment partners should take to deliver on this consumer demand for more innovative payments. To retain customers and differentiate themselves in a crowded payments marketplace, merchants should consistently uplevel payments experiences with innovative technologies and match consumer demand for convenience and speed with technology that enables frictionless, end-to-end payments experiences.

To learn more about the report, click here. For more information on NMI, visit: https://www.nmi.com/.

About NMI

NMI is a leading global payment enablement platform, processing more than $203 billion in payments annually. We enable payments for over 3,500 partners and over 277,000 merchants around the world and across the entire commerce ecosystem, including merchant sign up and management and payment acceptance across online, in-app, mobile, in-store, and unattended channels. We’re constantly innovating in order to power the next era of payments, building in the latest technology so ISVs, ISOs, banks and fintech innovators can focus on what they do best. NMI has offices in the US and UK and serves global customers.