Over the past year, adoption of a rapidly expanding Visa Tap to Phone technology has skyrocketed by 200% worldwide, enabling SMBs to accept transactions seamlessly and at low cost.
Visa, one of the leading global payment service providers, revealed impressive statistics on its innovative Tap to Phone service, which is converting ordinary smartphones into point-of-sale (POS) devices, eliminating the need for traditional card readers or registers.
The revolutionary contactless payments technology has grown by 200% worldwide, with the United States, United Kingdom, and Brazil leading the adoption charts and collectively experiencing a remarkable 234% growth rate.
Tap to Phone enhances Visa’s already massive contactless payment ecosystem with improved checkout capabilities for brick-and-mortar merchants. Through a simple app download, businesses of all sizes can accept contactless payments using their NFC-enabled smartphones.
It is important to note that nearly 30% of Tap to Phone users are newly established small businesses. Therefore, it is obvious that this technology is lowering barriers to market entry for beginner entrepreneurs who often cannot afford high-cost card readers or cash registers. At the same time, about 60% of the global population or over 4.8 billion people in the world own smartphones, most of which are NFC-enabled. SoftPOS solutions like Visa Tap to Phone enable the majority of people to become merchants at ease. By providing a convenient and affordable way to process transactions, Visa is helping microsellers and SMBs worldwide participate in the digital economy.
Besides, contactless payments are growing more popular among consumers each year. In the UK alone, one-third of adults are using mobile contactless payments at least once a month. Mark Nelsen, Global Head of Consumer Products at Visa sees Tap to Phone as a game-changer. He explained that all types of businesses, from large retailers to small vendors at local markets, are embracing this technology to enhance payment experiences for their customers.
Visa expects Tap to Phone adoption to continue rising, with more businesses and consumers recognizing its convenience. Additionally, the company is rolling out a few significant innovations that enhance tap-based payments and can, therefore, boost their adoption in the nearest future.
The innovations include the Tap to Add Card tool. Launched globally with Apple Pay in September 2024, this feature allows users to quickly add credit or debit cards to digital wallets by simply tapping the card against their phone. This has already resulted in millions of digital card activations across 100+ issuers, improving security and transaction approval rates.
Another novel feature is Tap to Confirm. It enables users to authenticate high-value transactions securely and instantly.
Visa also plans to add a new functionality called Tap to Send & Request Money. Coming later in 2025, this feature will allow users to send and receive money simply by tapping their physical card or digital credentials against another device. Samsung Galaxy users will soon get the chance to test this function under the title “Tap to Transfer.”
