Mobile and contactless payments are slowly becoming the new norm all over the world. Unfortunately, not every point of sale terminal accepts these payment options, as they do not possess the necessary hardware or software upgrades. By 2020, nearly eight in ten POS terminals will be NFC-ready. But will it be too late by then?

Consumers Want To Use NFC Payments Right Now

It seems like forever since NFC payments were first introduced to the world. Fintech and banking efforts are all focusing on mobile and contactless payments, yet adoption rates of either payment option remain fairly low. That is not difficult to explain, as very few payment terminals are equipped with NFC capabilities right now.

That situation is coming to change, though, as over 16 million NFC-ready points of sale terminals will ship throughout all of 2016. To be more precise, close to three in five terminals shipped out this year include NFC capabilities. Increasing that number is of the utmost importance, though, as consumers are not too patient when it comes to exploring new payment options.

Particularly Europe and North America are regions where NFC payment terminals are more common when compared to the rest of the world. With close to 90% of new generation

Despite these positive efforts, only 45 million POS terminals are NFC-ready right now. That number is expected to increase to 86.9 million by 2020, which is still a few years away. However, if that threshold is reached, roughly 77% of the entire world’s POS terminals will be capable of accepting these new popular payment options.

Berg Insights Senior Analyst Johan Fagerberg told the media:

“The growth is driven by the increase in mPOS terminal shipments from 18.0 million units in 2016 to 42.3 million units in 2020, as well as by a growth in the attach rate from 45 percent to 77 percent.”

Shipping out new payment terminals is one thing, but that doesn’t mean that they will all be activated. Thankfully, the number of NFC-capable terminals being activated is on the rise. It remains up to individual stores and retailers to upgrade their terminals, even though doing so usually comes at a high cost.

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