Top 12 Ecommerce Payment Trends For 2025
Cart-Abandonment Blues: 13% of shoppers abandon purchases due to insufficient payment options, emphasizing the need for diverse payment methods in ecommerce.
Adapt or Be Forgotten: Ecommerce stores must stay updated with modern payment technologies to meet customers' expectations for fast and frictionless payments.
Trend Watcher: Familiarize yourself with the top 12 ecommerce payment trends to craft a successful payment strategy for your online business.
Preferred Payments Please!: The number one reason for cart abandonment is the lack of preferred payment methods, showcasing the importance of offering various options.
Think about the last time you were at checkout and didn’t see your preferred payment method and told yourself you'd come back and checkout later—did you go back or did you abandon the purchase?
Over the past few years, various technologies and payment methods have evolved to meet modern customers’ growing demands for fast and frictionless payments.
Unfortunately, not all ecommerce stores have kept pace with the latest ecommerce payment trends.
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A recent survey revealed that 13% of respondents abandoned their cart in the past three months due to insufficient payment options. The top reason for abandoned carts? Lack of preferred payment method.
Let’s dive into the top 12 ecommerce payment trends that will help you get up to speed with what’s brewing in the payments industry.
12 Ecommerce Payment Trends to Guide Your Strategy
Let’s dive into the 12 prevailing ecommerce payment trends and how they can impact your ecommerce business.
1. The rise of digital wallets and mobile payments
Modern customers have a need for speed. They want fast and frictionless transactions, and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay deliver.
Digital wallets are a norm among shoppers—53% of people use digital wallets more often than traditional payment methods, according to a Forbes Advisor survey.
It’s easy to offer customers the option to pay via digital wallets, but choosing the right payment processor is key.
A mistake in selecting a reliable payment processor can lead to hiccups at checkout—and your customers hate that.
So should you, because failure to process payments can lead to higher cart abandonment rates. If you’re looking for payment processing software, here are our top picks:
2. Embedded payments and their role in the checkout process
When you embed a digital payment service into your ecommerce app or website, the customer can complete a transaction without redirecting the customer to third-party payment gateways or juggling between apps.
These payments are invisible in the sense that they blend into the overall user experience and make the checkout process fast, intuitive, and nearly frictionless.
Think about how you typically make payments from a digital wallet.
You select a preferred wallet at checkout, switch to the digital wallet app, and approve the payment using a PIN or one-time passcode.
With embedded payments, the merchant app redirects you to a gateway based on your preferred digital wallet and automatically registers the one-time passcode received on your device.
Once you approve, the payment is complete.
The reduced friction and checkout complexity can boost conversion rates because they face fewer opportunities to reconsider or abandon the purchase.
Embedded payment methods can include various options, including mobile wallets, BNPL, direct transfers, and saved cards.
These options are accessible within the checkout flow, catering to diverse customer preferences.
3. The expansion of buy now, pay later (BNPL) options
The rise of BNPL options over the past decade has rewritten the rules of ecommerce.
Companies like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay let shoppers split payments into installments, encouraging impulse buys and raising average order values.
Why wait until payday to splurge when instant gratification is an option?
BNPL can also boost average order value (AOV). Research shows that online stores offering BNPL had an AOV of $333.80, compared to $286.81 for stores that did not.
Think about it. Johnny’s been eyeing a pair of sneakers in your store, but payday is still a week away. There’s a party coming up, and he needs to dress to impress with those shiny new sneakers.
Instead of paying in cash, Johnny can use BNPL to buy the sneakers, making payments over the next three or six months.
It’s a win-win—he gets the sneakers, and you’re able to sell a more expensive pair of sneakers, all thanks to BNPL.
Check out our top 10 picks for BNPL platforms:
4. BNPL’s growing influence on ecommerce transactions
BNPL accounted for about 5% of global ecommerce transaction volume in 2022 and the volume is expected to grow at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 16% between 2022 and 2026.
BNPL’s increasing influence on ecommerce transactions is attributable to various factors, including its ability to cater to diverse consumer profiles.
Younger shoppers like BNPL because of its flexibility of splitting payments into interest-free installments for high-ticket items, while credit-wary customers see it as an alternative to high-interest credit cards.
You, as an ecommerce merchant, benefit from BNPL’s growing influence too. It improves conversion rates by eliminating the price barrier at checkout.
But here’s the tricky part—BNPL can sometimes create financial stress for consumers and backfire on brand trust.
It’s critical to focus on transparent terms, manage spending limits, and partner with responsible BNPL providers to avoid these pitfalls.
5. Pay by bank: a cost-effective payment solution
Many savvy customers shy away from the idea of BNPL and prefer to avoid interest and transaction charges.
These customers may prefer to cut middlemen and directly pay from the bank. Direct bank payments are cheaper for your ecommerce brand, too. Let’s just compare fees:
- Credit card:
- Transaction fee: 0.1% to 0.15%
- Payment processing fee: 0.3% to 2%
- Direct bank payments:
- Usually no transaction or processing fees
The types of fees levied, and fee structure, depend on the card issuer and credit card network in question.
Direct bank payments also offer ecommerce merchants instant access to cash unlike payments made via credit cards or digital wallets, provided the processor uses open banking APIs and not ACH (Automated Clearing House).
Open banking allows third-party developers, like payment processors, to use secure APIs to enable direct bank transactions, without needing traditional intermediaries like banks or credit card companies.
Unfortunately, open banking regulations aren’t as well-established in the US as they are in the UK and EU.
So, for US merchants, the Real-Time Payments (RTP) network is the only way to receive instant payments. If your bank and the customer’s banks are on the RTP network, payment processors like Zelle can help you receive instant payments.
Instantaneous access to cash is a game changer for your cash flow.
Add the enhanced security of bank payments, and you’ve got a low-cost, future-proof online payment option for your business.
You can add pay by bank as an option to your store, just like any other payment method. Pay by bank is available with popular payment processors like Stripe, PayPal, and Adyen.
If you’re looking to use an open banking API, Plaid’s pay by bank service might be worth considering.
6. Strategies to promote pay by bank adoption
If you like the idea of receiving cash faster and paying lower transaction fees, here are some strategies to promote pay-by-bank adoption:
- Use open banking frameworks. Integrate open banking APIs into your ecommerce website and app to offer seamless, secure connections between customers’ bank accounts and your platform. Open banking not only helps you bypass card networks and other middlemen but also builds a real-time connection that fosters trust and offers convenience.
- Incentivize pay by bank. Offer discounts, cashback, or loyalty rewards for using bank transfers. Since you’re already getting some financial benefit through lower fees, consider passing on a part of that benefit to your customers initially to drive adoption.
- Streamline user experience. A simplified checkout process for pay by bank, especially on mobile devices, helps remove the psychological barrier a customer might see when using this payment method. Consider adding features like one-click payments and fast payment confirmations.
7. Cryptocurrency payments: a niche but emerging trend
Cryptocurrency is still a niche payment method in ecommerce, but it’s making waves.
The amount of cryptocurrencies, coins, and tokens connected to ecommerce is $2.27 billion as of September 2024.
Forward-thinking merchants and ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce recognize the potential of cryptocurrency for its lower fees, faster cross-border transactions, and appeal to tech-savvy buyers.
These are customers who value privacy and don’t mind paying a premium for it.
The problem? Most coins aren’t a great store of value right now. High volatility means prices can swing wildly between checkout and transaction settlement.
For example, let’s say a customer pays $8,000 at checkout with Bitcoin on September 4, 2024, at 5:50 am when the price of a Bitcoin was around $58,000.
You received the payment in your crypto wallet at 6:30 am, when the price of Bitcoin had dropped to roughly $55,500 (a 4.3% fall). This means you’d receive Bitcoin worth $7,656 ($8,000 minus 4.3%).
Imagine dealing with that kind of volatility on the regular.
That’s a headache for both merchants and consumers, but the potential to streamline global transactions is undeniable.
It’s risky, but so was ecommerce in the 90s. If you’re open to accepting crypto payments, consider partnering with payment processors like BitPay and Coinbase.
8. The future outlook for cryptocurrency in ecommerce
It’s important not to get ahead of ourselves when looking at crypto in the context of ecommerce.
The potential for frictionless and borderless payments is great.
But we’re still quite far from widespread adoption, thanks to volatility and a messy regulatory landscape, and merchants still have more convenient ways to get their money.
I spoke to Mark Baartse, an ecommerce marketing consultant and one of Australia’s Top 50 People in Ecommerce, about what his clients think about crypto.
A lot of the issues with offering things like crypto is about user experience.
Ultimately, merchants don't care how they get money. Whatever customers are wanting to use, within reason, they will accept.
As long as crypto assets remain volatile, merchants will remain concerned about risking their margins and customers won’t trust a currency that can tank overnight. Merchants have no real benefit to using crypto, at least as things are right now. Mark continues:
There needs to be a case for some incrementality there. I haven't seen that case.
Basically, how does onboarding something like crypto make more money or save money?
Answer is, it doesn't, in the majority of cases.
That said, there’s ample room for growth.
As central banks get more comfortable with digital currencies—94% of central banks are exploring a central bank digital currency—and regulatory frameworks start to catch up, we might see crypto being accepted by mainstream platforms.
So the overall outlook right now? Cautious, at best. If prices stabilize and regulators get their act together, crypto might find a real seat at the ecommerce table.
9. AI-powered fraud prevention and security
Let’s look at two key data points from the Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 by IBM:
- A data breach can cost brands $4.88 million on average.
- Orgs that use AI-powered security save an average of $2.22 million (compared to those that didn’t), thanks to its ability to detect threats early.
These figures make it clear that data breaches are expensive and AI is your best bet to offer unparalleled protection.
Traditional fraud prevention technologies generally relied on preconfigured rules to detect fraud.
However, AI enables real-time fraud detection, identifying suspicious transactions with greater accuracy than traditional methods.
Machine learning algorithms can detect anomalies in transaction patterns—like large amounts, unexpected locations, or abnormal frequency—and flag suspicious transactions before the damage is done.
In addition to fraud detection, AI also helps reduce chargebacks by accurately identifying legitimate buyers from bad actors.
Moreover, AI improves platform security by spotting sophisticated threats that traditional methods miss, like account takeovers and phishing attempts.
That’s exactly why 74% of financial institutions are already using AI for financial crime and fraud detection.
Of course, AI has various use cases in ecommerce beyond payments as well. If you’re looking for fraud prevention software, check out our top 10 picks:
10. AI’s dual role in enhancing customer experience and reducing fraud
AI in ecommerce can pull double duty—in addition to fraud prevention, AI can help make the shopping experience seamless.
AI-powered biometric authentication offers a perfect blend of security and seamless experiences that customers crave.
For example, fingerprint scans and facial recognition allow customers to skip the hassle of passwords.
Amazon is a great example of a company that uses AI for security without becoming a drag on CX—the company’s AI knows when to block a shady payment but won’t bug a frequent shopper with extra steps.
Generative AI can also enhance customer experience with personalized and dynamic pricing strategies.
Dynamic pricing is a strategy where an AI inventory management solution changes your product’s price based on real-time factors like demand, supply, and customer behavior.
Suppose you sell outdoor gear. It’s summer, and demand for hiking boots has spiked due to favorable weather and the start of hiking season.
If stock levels start to dwindle and customers are purchasing faster than usual, your AI inventory management tool will pick up on that demand surge and raise the price of hiking boots.
11. The evolution of payment technologies and megatrends
The payments industry is going through a seismic shift fueled by cutting-edge technologies.
So far, we’ve seen technologies that allow faster payments—think wallets, pay-by-bank, and crypto. But there’s still a small friction point: customers need to verify their identity to complete a payment.
That’s where biometric payments come in.
With biometric payments, customers can skip passwords and one-time passcodes and instead use their fingerprint or face to verify their identity.
Biometric payments are already in use at retail locations like Amazon Go and Whole Foods (supported by Amazon One) and you might be already aware of the ability to pay using your fingerprint via Apple Pay.
And, research confirms that customers want biometric payments.
The Payments Innovation Pulse Report by NMI surveyed 1,000 US consumers, and 47% of them indicated that they’d use biometric payments if a business offered it.
Identity-based payments go beyond biometrics by using a combination of personal data, like a customer’s location or device information, to verify their identity. This provides an extra layer of security and personalization.
It’s not entirely foolproof yet, and I doubt we’ll ever have a world where customers can rely on AI to verify identity for payments because there’s ample room for manipulation and fraud.
What I do see catching on is the use of DeFi (Decentralized Finance) apps. They offer:
- Lower transaction fees. DeFi apps use decentralized protocols like stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. These have lower fees compared to traditional methods like credit cards due to absence of intermediaries, benefiting both customers and merchants.
- Global accessibility and faster payments. DeFi apps support borderless payments. This can help you tap into international markets without relying on slower payment methods or bearing multiple currency conversion charges.
- Smart contracts. Smart contracts are an excellent option for B2B ecommerce merchants. It gives their customers more confidence because the customers can choose to release the payment based on predefined conditions. For example, the smart contract can be set up to release the payment only once the goods have been delivered to the customer.
All of these DeFi features are great, except that it involves the use of cryptocurrencies.
Once we see cryptocurrencies mature into a more stable store of value, DeFi has the potential to revolutionize ecommerce payments.
12. Emerging payment technologies to watch in 2024
If you’re looking to implement the latest payment technologies to meet evolving customer demands, the ones you should focus on are personalized payment processing and biometric payments.
Personalized payment processing involves tailoring the checkout experience based on user behavior, preferences, and past transactions.
Unlike most personalization efforts you make for your brand, personalized payment experiences are typically driven by your payment processor.
Payment processors like Stripe can help personalize the experience for your customers.
For example, Stripe offers a feature called Smart Retries, which uses machine learning to choose the best time to retry failed payment attempts to increase the likelihood of successfully paying an invoice.
The idea is to boost conversion rates and make the payment experience seamless.
You should also invest in biometric payments because your competitors are likely working on offering biometric payments too.
According to a report by PYMNTS, facial recognition and fingerprint scans are the most commonly used biometric methods to validate online purchases, accounting for over 85% of all biometric payments and over 50% of all payments used for online purchases.
Most payment processors, including Stripe and PayPal, and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay support biometric payments.
The Future Of Ecommerce Payments
I asked Greg Zakowicz, Sr. Ecommerce Expert at Omnisend, what he thinks will be the most widely used ecommerce payment method five and fifteen years from now.
Interestingly, he argues credit cards are deeply embedded into our lives and it will be hard to carve them out even with modern tech.
I still think credit cards will be the dominant form of payment 15 years from now, although I expect a decrease in physical card use versus cards linked to mobile devices.
It takes time to change consumer behavior and to adopt new technologies, and expecting 50-plus years of consumer behavior to change in five or fifteen years is a stretch.
Even with our old habits, if you zoom out and look at the big picture, you’ll notice that future payment methods try to achieve a few common objectives.
All future payment methods aim to offer seamless, fast, and invisible payments, are embedded into the platform or app in question, and often use AI to personalize the shopper’s experience.
Staying on top of trends is critical.
Not just to deliver on customer expectations, but to exceed them and use your knowledge of modern payment methods as a competitive edge.
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