Payment giant Visa reported a 200% year-over-year increase in the adoption of its Tap to Phone payment solution, which allows merchants to accept contactless payments using only a smartphone.
The solution has supported millions of sellers of all sizes, expanding Visa’s tap capabilities.
The U.S., UK, and Brazil have seen the highest adoption rates, collectively growing by 234%.
The technology has been particularly beneficial for small businesses, with nearly 30% of Tap sellers being new small businesses, helping to democratize access to commerce tools.
Tap to Phone enables businesses to turn their NFC-enabled smartphones into point-of-sale terminals by simply downloading an app.
This has expanded payment accessibility for both small businesses and microsellers, allowing them to accept contactless transactions without investing in traditional hardware.
Visa expects the momentum for Tap to Phone to continue, driven by increasing consumer and business adoption of tap-based payments.
The company has also introduced Tap to Add Card, which allows users to add Visa cards to digital wallets by tapping them on a smartphone.
Since its global rollout with Apple Pay in September 2024, the feature has gained traction, helping to enable millions of tokens for more than 100 issuers, while also improving authorisation rates and fraud reduction rates.
Later this year, Samsung Galaxy devices will support Tap to Send under the name “Tap to Transfer”, a feature that lets users transfer money by tapping their physical card or card credentials to a friend’s phone.
“Tap to Phone is a tech equalizer for businesses. Walk into some of the world’s largest retailers or go to your local farmer’s market and they’re using this same technology to accept payments right on their phone.
People love to tap, so we’re continuing to expand our tap capabilities to create the best payments experiences for people and businesses.”
said Mark Nelsen, Global Head of Consumer Products, Visa.
Featured image credit: Edited from Visa
