09.07.2025
Payment is not just the last step in the purchasing process – it is a decisive moment in the customer experience. The world of payment is currently changing rapidly, driven by technology, new sales models and customer expectations. But not every payment trend is right for every business. Our evaluation aid helps you to understand individual trends.
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The world of payment is changing rapidly, driven by technology, new sales models and customer expectations. From a multitude of innovations, retailers are faced with the challenge of choosing the trends relevant to them.
This post explains why payment trends are relevant for retailers, the three developments that are currently of particular interest, and how you can assess which of them are really worthwhile for your business.
For retail companies, it is now more important than ever to know and understand current payment trends. Modern payment solutions have long been more than just a service: they have a direct impact on customer satisfaction, revenues and competitiveness.
Many customers want payment to be flexible, quick and easy – whether by card, smartphone or invoice. If you don’t meet these expectations, you risk dissatisfaction or cancelled purchases.
When payment works smoothly, the likelihood that a purchase will actually be completed increases. Complex or unreliable payment processes, on the other hand, put people off.
Retailers who accept modern payment methods offer a service in keeping with the times that can set them apart from the competition.
Automated payment processes reduce sources of error, speed up checkout processes and reduce the amount of background work required − for example, for booking transactions.
Mobile payment is when payment is made using mobile devices such as smartphones, smartwatches or “passive” wearables such as rings or watches. These devices feature a payment function that replaces the traditional wallet.
Payment works by means of:
Well-known mobile payment services include TWINT, Apple Pay, Google Pay and SwatchPAY!
Mobile payment enables high-street retailers to appeal to younger target groups in particular, and to offer loyalty programmes, promotions and other value-added services suchas displaying digital receipts efficiently and effectively, assuming that the checkout system accepts this type of payment.
Hybrid shopping experiences have long been a reality. For example, customers checking the latest promotions in a retailer’s app while in their shop or reserving products online and picking them up in-store. In future, online and offline retail will converge even more closely and further transform the omnichannel system.
Omnichannel payment refers to the ability to process payments uniformly across different sales channels – for example, using the same payment methods both in-store and in online shops. Technically, this is usually based on integrated payment solutions that serve all channels, such as the omnichannel payment solution from PostFinance.
The focus is on consistent payment processing: the same payment methods, the same clearing logic, central evaluation. For retailers, this provides simplified payment processes and a better overview.
Embedded payments are seamlessly integrated into the customer experience – for example, in apps or automated checkout systems. That means that payment is made where the purchase takes place, without media disruption or redirection to a payment process. Well-known examples include UBER, the in-app payment option in the Migros app, or Amazon’s 1-click checkout.
Invisible payments are a subset of embedded payments that go one step further: the payment is triggered entirely in the background, without any active effort on the part of the customer – for example, by sensors when leaving a shop or automatic debiting in apps. Embedded payments allow retailers to achieve better conversion rates thanks to faster checkout, customer-centric shopping experiences without media disruption, and new business models such as subscriptions (regular, automatic payments for an ongoing service, e.g. a monthly subscription), pay-as-you-go (payment only for actual use, e.g. for mobile phone or cloud services) and on-demand services (services that can be accessed as needed, e.g. streaming or food delivery).
Not all trends are equally relevant to every retail company. Their importance depends largely on how well they fit your own strategy, target group and sales focus.
For example, a high-street business with digitally savvy customers can benefit in particular from offering mobile payments, while omnichannel payment makes most sense for retailers who sell both in-store and online, or who want a presence in multiple channels in the medium term. Invisible payments, on the other hand, are particularly suitable for retailers with high footfall, simple shopping baskets and digital customer loyalty, especially in the convenience and mobility sectors.
Systematic evaluation allows retail companies to assess which trends are relevant today or will be in the near future, enabling the systematic use of resources to further develop the payment landscape within their company.
Use our evaluation aid to find out which payment trends are really relevant to your company.
