Report: Contactless POS Terminal Transactions to Reach $500 billion in 2017
Contactless POS terminal transactions made in-store using cards, mobile devices or wearables will total approximately $500 billion annually by next year, an increase from roughly $321 billion in 2016, according to a recent study by Juniper Research. However, because of the typically low value of contactless payments, they will represent 5 percent of the total value of POS transactions in 2017. By the end of 2015, nearly 20 percent of terminals were contactless, but the percentage is expected to jump to approximately 67 percent worldwide by 2021.
The dramatic uptick in contactless POS terminals over the next several years will be, in part, because of mandates from card companies to retailers that terminals be contactless by a given deadline, according to the report. For example, all European POS terminals accepting either Maestro or Mastercard must include contactless functionality by 2020. In other markets, such as Sweden, Estonia and Latvia, terminals must be upgraded by January 2017.
The study also indicated that one in two payment cards will be contactless by 2020, and that smartphone and tablet-based mobile POS terminals will handle 20 percent of all retail POS transaction value by 2021.
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