Sample Report: Global Merchant Payments, Acceptance & Acquiring Infrastructure Market 2026

Description

Region: Global

Country: U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, China, India, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kenya, South Africa

‍Pages: 117

Publication Date: 27.08.2026

Questions Covered in the report:‍

• How are digital wallets, contactless payments, QR payments, and software-based acceptance changing merchant payment infrastructure across physical and digital commerce?
• How are merchant acquiring, payment gateways, payment orchestration, and multi-acquirer strategies developing to support more integrated payment ecosystems?
• How are payment costs, intelligent routing, checkout optimization, and operational performance influencing merchant payment strategies?
• How are merchant software, embedded payments, unified commerce, and platform-based payment infrastructure expanding the role of payments within broader commerce ecosystems?
• How are authentication, tokenization, fraud prevention, regulation, and regional infrastructure developments shaping the future of merchant payment acceptance?

‍

Key Findings:

‍

Global Merchant Payment Infrastructure Advances Through Integrated Acceptance, Acquiring, and Payment Orchestration in 2026

‍

Why This Matters: Merchant acceptance is moving beyond channel-specific systems toward integrated infrastructure connecting checkout, acquiring, authentication, routing, and settlement. At the same time, payment diversity and software-based commerce are increasing demand for flexible, interoperable payment infrastructure.

‍

Key Highlights

• Globally, transaction-related payments revenue is forecast to increase from over USD 650 billion in 2024 to more than USD 900 billion by 2029.
• Globally, mobile money merchant payment value reached USD 155 billion in 2025, increasing by over 40% YoY and more than doubling from 2021.
• In East Asia & Pacific, over 80% of adults in low- and middle-income economies made or received digital payments in 2024, compared with below 45% in South Asia and Middle East & North Africa.

‍

"Merchant payment infrastructure is developing toward increasingly integrated environments where acceptance, acquiring, routing, and transaction management operate together," says Yücel Yelken, Founder and CEO of yStats.com. "Payment providers and merchants continue expanding interoperable capabilities while payment performance, flexibility, and security remain important priorities."

‍

Merchant Acceptance Becomes More Integrated

Digital wallets, contactless payments, QR acceptance, tokenization, and standardized interfaces are connecting merchant payment experiences across physical and digital commerce.

Acquiring and Payment Management Become More Software-Enabled

Gateways, orchestration, and multi-acquirer architectures increasingly support provider connectivity, routing, resilience, and transaction-performance management.

Merchant Economics and Security Shape Infrastructure

Merchants increasingly balance payment costs with conversion and operational performance, while authentication, tokenization, compliance, and fraud controls strengthen security across the payment lifecycle.

Access the Full Report

For detailed insights into merchant acceptance, acquiring, orchestration, merchant economics, security, technology, and regional developments, access "Global Merchant Payments, Acceptance & Acquiring Infrastructure Market 2026."

‍

Table of Contents:

1.              Key Takeaways

2.              Management Summary

3.              Executive Overview

•        Global: Evolution of Merchant Payment Acceptance Infrastructure, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Payment Acceptance Ecosystem and Transaction Stack, August 2026

•        Global: Structural Drivers Transforming Merchant Payments, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Infrastructure Architecture from Checkout to Settlement, August 2026

4.              Merchant Market Structure

•        Global: Transact.- And Non-Transaction-Related Payment Revenue, in USD bl. and CAGR, 2019, 2024 & 2029f

•       ,Global: Merchant Payment Infrastructure Priorities by Payment Capability Maturity Level and Business Size, in % of Surveyed Merchants, 2025

•        Global: Merchant Expectations Compared with Banks' Self-Assessed Capability Across Key Payment Infrastructure Services, in % of Respondents, 2025

•        Global: Bank Payment Executives Citing Selected Merchant Onboarding Challenges, in % of Resp., 2025

•        Global: Commercial Roles and Value Creation Across Merchant Payment Infrastructure, August 2026

5.              Merchant Acceptance Technologies

•        Global: Evolution of Card Acceptance Infrastr. from EMV Chip to Tokenized Payment Credentials, August 2026

•        Global: Digital Wallet Integration Within Merchant Checkout and Payment Acceptance Infrastructure, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Infrastructure Supporting Contactless Payment Acceptance, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant QR Accept. Across Pres. Models, Interoperability, and Payment-Rail Connectivity, Aug 2026

•        Global: Change in Adults Who Made a Digital Merchant Payment, in Percentage Points, 2021-2024

•        Global: Adults With a Digitally Enabled Account by Region, in %, 2024

•       Global: Adults Who Made or Received Digital Payments by Region, in % of Adults in Low- and Middle-Income Economies, 2024

•        Global: Mobile Money Merchant Payment Transaction Value, in USD billions and CAGR, 2021-2025

•        Global: Growth in Selected Mobile Money Merchant Acceptance and Activity Metrics, in %, Sep. 2024-Jun. 2025

•        Global: Circulating Mobile Money Transaction Value by Transaction Type, in %, December 2025

•        Global: Mobile Money Transaction Value by Transaction Category, in %, 2025

6.             Merchant Acquiring, Gateways & Orchestration

•        Global: Traditional Acquiring, PayFac Models, Embedded Acquiring, And Marketplace Payments, August 2026

•        Global: Gateway APIs, Checkout Integration, Tokenization, Pay. Meth., And Omnichannel Commerce, Aug 2026

•        Global: Payment Orchestration, Multi-Provider Man., Payment Optimization, And Operational Control, Aug 2026

•        Global: Intelligent Routing, Authorization Optimization, Payment Performance, And Transaction Man., Aug 2026

•        Global: Multi-Acquirer Strategies, Payment Resilience, Local Acquiring, And Cross-Border Pay. Opt., Aug 2026

7.              Merchant Economics

•        Global: Merchant Payment Economics and Total Cost of Acceptance, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Cost And Conversion Optimization Across Payment Acceptance, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Payment Routing Econ. Across Cost, Performance, and Operational Trade-Offs, Aug 2026

•        Global: Checkout Infrastr. Optimization Across Payment Initiation, Authentication, and Execution, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Onboarding Lifecycle Across Payment Acceptance Infrastructure, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Onboarding & KYB Across Verif., Payment Activation, and Ongoing Monitoring, August 2026

•        Global: Operational Performance Management Across Merchant Payment Infrastructure, August 2026

•        Global: Settlement, Reconciliation, and Exception Management Across Merchant Payment Infr., August 2026

8.              Merchant Technology Ecosystem

•        Global: Payment Acceptance, Merchant Software, And Value-Added Services, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Software, Embedded Finance, And Business Management Solutions, August 2026

•        Global: Cross-Channel Pay., Customer Data Integration, Merchant Oper., And Commerce Platforms, August 2026

•        Global: Marketplace and Platform Payment Infrastructure, August 2026

•        Global: Subscription Pay. Across Credential Storage, Recurring Pay. Rails, and Renewal Execution, Aug 2026

•        Global: Merchant Payment API Infr. Across Integration, Capability Abstraction, and Reliability, August 2026

9.              Security & Trust

•        Global: PCI DSS 4.0.1 and Merchant Compliance, August 2026

•        Global: EMV 3DS, SCA, Risk-Based Authentication, August 2026

•        Global: Network Tokenization, Lifecycle Management, Authorization, and Digital Commerce, August 2026

•        Global: Merchant Fraud Controls, Transaction Monitoring, AI-Driven Detection, Payment Risk Man., August 2026

•        Global: Authentication, Tokenization, Data Protection, Transaction Monitoring, and Payment Infrastr., August 2026

10.            Regional Infrastructure

10.1.         North America

•        North America: Trans.- And Non-Trans.-Related Payment Revenue, in USD bl. and CAGR, 2019, 2024 & 2029f

•        U.S.: Merchant Acquiring, Payment Processing and Acceptance Infrastructure, August 2026

•        U.S.: Digital Wallets, Network Tokenization, Remote Commerce, and Omnichannel Payment Infrastr., August 2026

•        Canada: Payment Infrastr. Modernization for Real-Time Merchant Payments and Digital Commerce, August 2026

10.2.         Europe

•        Europe: Transact.- And Non-Transaction-Related Payment Revenue, in USD bl. and CAGR, 2019, 2024 & 2029f

•        Europe: Instant Payment Regulation, SEPA Infrastr., Wero, and Account-to-Account Commerce, August 2026

•        Europe: Contactless Card Payment Volume, in Billions of Transactions and YoY Growth, H1 2024-H1 2025

•        Europe: Contactless Card Payment Value, in EUR billions, and YoY Growth, H1 2024-H1 2025

•        Europe: Contactless Share of Non-Remote Card Payments, in %, H1 2025

•       Europe: POS Terminals by Contactless Acceptance, in %, H1 2025

•        Europe: Share of Non-Cash Transactions by Payment Instrument, in %, H1 2025

•        UK: Open Banking APIs, Pay by Bank, and Account-to-Account Payment Infrastructure, August 2026

•        UK: Contactless Payments as a Share of Total Payments, in %, 2015, 2019 & 2024

•        UK: Mobile Payment Service Adoption Among Adults, in %, 2023-2024

•        UK: Payment Volume of Selected Payment Methods, in Billions, 2024 & 2034F

•        UK: Contactless Debit and Credit Card Payment Volume, in Billions, 2024 & 2034F

•        Germany: Merchant Acceptance Modernization, POS Infrastr., and Consumer Payment Behavior, August 2026

10.3.         APAC

•        APAC: Transact.- And Non-Transaction-Related Payment Revenue, in USD bl. and CAGR, 2019, 2024 & 2029f

•        China: QR Payment Infrastructure, Super Apps, and Merchant Acceptance Ecosystem, August 2026

•        China: Adults Who Made a Digital Merchant Payment, in % of Adults Aged 15+, 2021 & 2024

•        India: Expansion of Merchant Payment Infrastructure and Commerce Capabilities, August 2026

•        India: Adults Who Made a Digital Merchant Payment, in % of Adults Aged 15+, 2021 & 2024

•        Singapore: PayNow, QR Interoperability, and Connected Retail Payments, August 2026

•        Australia: Payment Infrastr. Modernization Through NPP, PayTo, and Merchant Payment Innovation, August 2026

10.4.         Latin America

•        Latin America: Trans.- And Non-Trans.-Related Payment Revenue, in USD bl. and CAGR, 2019, 2024 & 2029f

•        Brazil: Pix Across E-Commerce, Physical Retail, and Recurring Payments, August 2026

•        Brazil: Adults Who Made a Digital Merchant Payment, in % of Adults Aged 15+, 2021 & 2024

•        Mexico: Merchant Acquiring, Acceptance Infrastructure, and Digital Commerce Development, August 2026

•        Mexico: Adults Who Made a Digital Merchant Payment, in % of Adults Aged 15+, 2021 & 2024

10.5.         Middle East

•        Middle East: Merchant Accept. Across Digital Rails, POS Connectivity, and Regional Interoperability, Aug 2026

•        Saudi Arabia: mada, National Payment Rails, and International Wallet Acceptance, August 2026

•        United Arab Emirates: National Payment Infrastructure, Aani, Jaywan & Omnichannel Commerce, August 2026

10.6.         Africa

•        Africa: Merchant Accept. Across Mobile Money, Instant Payments, QR Accept., and Interoperability, Aug 2026

•        Kenya: Mobile Money Merchant Acceptance, Interoperability, and Digital Commerce Infrastructure, August 2026

•        South Africa: Merchant Acquiring and Digital Payment Infrastructure, August 2026

•        South Africa: Adults Who Made a Digital Merchant Payment, in % of Adults Aged 15+, 2021 & 2024

10.7.         Cross-Regional Infrastructure

•        MEA: Transact.- And Non-Transaction-Related Payment Revenue, in USD bl. and CAGR, 2019, 2024 & 2029f

•        Africa & Asia: Leading Regional Contributions to Mobile Money Merchant Payment Value Growth, in %, 2025

11.            Competitive Landscape

•        Global: Provider Positioning, Merchant Segments, Acquiring, Unified Commerce, Embedded Paym., August 2026

•        Global: Multi-Provider Connect., Intelligent Routing, Transaction Optim., And Centralized Operations, August 2026

•        Global: Strategic Alliances, ISV Partnerships, Commerce Platforms, And Banking Collaboration, August 2026

•        Global: Strategic Differentiation Across Merchant Payment Infrastructure, August 2026

12.            Future Outlook

•        Global: Cloud-Native Acquiring, API-Based Infr., Software-Defined Accept., And Modular Payment, August 2026

•        Global: Intelligent Routing, Multi-Provider Connectivity, Operational Auto., And Payment Decisioning, August 2026

•        Global: Embedded Payments, ISV Distribution, Vertical Software, And Software-Based Acceptance, August 2026

•        Global: AI-Driven Checkout, Intelligent Decisioning, And Payment Automation, August 2026

Companies Mentioned:

• Adyen
• Fiserv
• Clover
• Global Payments
• Worldpay
• PayPal
• Braintree
• Stripe
• Checkout.com
• Weixin Pay
• Alipay
• Ant International
• Alipay+