Small business payment trends for 2026

Small business payment trends for 2026

The small businesses that win next year won’t be the ones optimizing what they can see and measure today. They’ll be the ones willing to move past what’s visible, measurable and familiar.

In other words, they’re building for what’s coming.

Global Payments’ 2026 Commerce and Payment Trends Report clearly shows how the commerce landscape is being shaped by AI, automation, trust infrastructure and new buying behaviors — long before most businesses realize the ground has moved beneath them.

One of the most important things we can do in research is help people see change clearly before it becomes urgent.

Payments go beyond transactions. They’re becoming embedded in software, conversations and automated decisioning. For SMBs, that has real implications — fewer manual steps, higher customer expectations, new risk considerations and new opportunities to create smoother experiences that build trust.

This report breaks down the six trends we believe will shape small businesses in 2026, and more importantly, what they mean for how you invest, what you modernize and what you should be optimizing.

1. Checkout isn’t the final frontier

For years, checkout was treated as the moment that mattered most. Faster pages. Fewer fields. More payment options.

But checkout is becoming irrelevant.

Agentic AI is changing who actually completes a transaction. Increasingly, it is not a human. It is a system acting on behalf of that human.

And for small businesses, it’s already here. The report found that 42% of SMBs have already seen AI agents make purchases on behalf of customers, compared with just 16% of enterprise businesses.

When an AI agent decides where to buy, when to buy, and how to pay, the checkout experience does not matter nearly as much as the trustworthiness of the ecosystem behind it.

This flips the traditional conversion mindset on its head.

Put another way, the companies that obsess over funnel optimization may soon find themselves optimizing an experience their customer never sees. And the real competition is who AI systems trust enough to send business in the first place.

2. Point of sale is no longer one place

We still talk about the point of sale as if it were a location. A counter. A terminal. A screen. screen.

The report makes it clear that the point of sale is now a decision, not a destination.

Payments are happening inside conversations, workflows, service moments and software platforms. An employee might reorder supplies directly from a Slack message, approve an invoice inside their accounting software, or accept a quote embedded in a customer support chat, all without ever visiting a checkout page or touching a terminal.

The act of paying is collapsing into the act of deciding. That distinction matters because it changes where investment should go.

When commerce becomes ambient, success depends less on hardware and more on orchestration. Businesses that cling to channel-based thinking will struggle to keep up with customers who no longer move in straight lines.

Over 85% of mid-sized U.S. retailers rely on mobile POS systems today.

3. Embedded payments are infrastructure, not innovation

Embedded payments are often positioned as a growth lever. The report found that embedded finance transaction volume is expected to grow from $92 billion in 2024 to $228 billion by 2028. But that framing undersells the reality.

In 2026, embedded payments aren’t just a differentiator. They’re table-stakes infrastructure.

Customers expect to pay for the tools they already use. They expect invoicing, financing, refunds and reconciliation to feel like one continuous experience rather than a series of handoffs.

Yet many organizations still treat payments as something bolted on at the end. That mindset creates friction that no amount of marketing can overcome.

The companies pulling ahead are not “adding” payments. They are designing systems where payments disappear into the workflow.

That distinction determines who scales and who stalls.

4. Real-time payments are about control, not speed

Everyone talks about speed. Faster settlement. Faster access to funds. Faster everything.

But speed is not the real value of real-time payments. Control is.

Instant funds change how businesses manage cash flow, risk, and reinvestment. They allow finance leaders to operate with clarity instead of guesswork. But only if the underlying systems are built to handle that immediacy responsibly.

Without modern fraud and risk frameworks, instant payments become a liability instead of an advantage. Especially when, as the report discovered, 72% of instant payments today are used for customer refunds.

Speed without strategy is just acceleration toward the wrong outcome.

5. Stablecoins are a trust problem, not a technology problem

Stablecoins are often framed as inevitable. Cheaper. Faster. Borderless.

The 2026 Commerce and Payment Trends Report takes a more grounded view. It dives into how stablecoins can create trustworthy digital money instead of just simply replacing traditional financial systems.

Technology is not the bottleneck. Governance is.

Until issues like consumer protection, compliance, and dispute resolution are solved at scale, stablecoins remain more of a signal than a solution. Of those surveyed in the report, 72% of North American businesses would consider stablecoins if they were integrated into existing platforms. The businesses paying attention are using this moment to assess readiness, not to chase headlines.

That restraint is a competitive advantage.

6. Self-service is the new expectation

Customers do not want help. They want autonomy. And 83% of businesses plan to significantly automate customer interactions within two years.

Returns, refunds, subscription changes, payment updates, and support interactions are increasingly expected to happen without friction or intervention. The report reinforces what many operators already feel. Manual processes are not just inefficient. They actively damage trust.

The real shift is structural

The biggest mistake a reader could make is treating these trends as separate initiatives.

AI, embedded payments, instant rails, and automation reinforce one another. Together, they form a new commerce architecture that favors anticipation over reaction.

The organizations that win in 2026 will be the ones willing to rethink ownership, investment, and success metrics for payments as a strategic system, rather than those with the longest roadmap.

What this report reveals to small business owners

If payments feel more complex than they should, you’re not imagining it. The landscape is changing fast.

If you’re making decisions about tools, workflows or growth in 2026, this report will help you choose more confidently. Read it to pressure-test your assumptions, spot opportunities early and make smarter decisions before these shifts become standard.

A webinar recording offers expert opinions on the year’s most compelling patterns, explores how they’ve evolved, and unpacks what they mean for the road ahead.

This story was produced by Global Payments and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.