eCommerce Payment Trends in 2022: What Merchants Need to Know

The Covid-19 pandemic upended how we shop, pushing many of us to buy online out of necessity. With elevated fuel prices and shifting daily routines, home delivery has become even more appealing. In today’s digital economy—where online banking, mobile wallets, and eCommerce converge—your customer’s shopping cart is often filled on a phone, not in a store aisle. That reality requires your eCommerce website and payment processor to adapt quickly so customers can complete purchases easily and securely, no matter where they are.

Commerce barriers in 2022

Ongoing supply chain disruptions tied to labor shortages, product scarcity, and raw material constraints have created a stop-and-start environment for many companies. In response, some businesses are accelerating automation to cut labor costs and improve fulfillment, while leaning more on online sales to bypass bottlenecks in traditional distribution.

Inflation has surged to levels not seen in four decades, with May reaching 8.6% and fuel costs up 49%. At the same time, US Consumer Sentiment fell to 50.20 in May 2022, its lowest mark in 85 years. Combined, these pressures reduce real purchasing power. Fewer discretionary trips and tighter budgets mean more shoppers will opt for online transactions over in-person browsing. Are your checkout, shipping options, and post-purchase communications set up to support customers who want speed, clarity, and control at every step?

2022 eCommerce and payment outlook: five trends to watch

Based on recent observations, five trends are shaping near-term commerce and payments over the next 12 months:

• Changing customer expectations
• Growth of Buy-now-pay-later
• Acceleration of connected commerce
• Digitization of B2B payments
• Attention to end-to-end data privacy

Each trend carries advantages and trade-offs. As you review them, ask: Which areas will most improve conversion, cash flow, and customer satisfaction for your business?

Changing customer expectations

Since March 2020, “card-not-present” transactions have surpassed “card-present” at checkout. Pandemic restrictions accelerated the shift, and it has not swung back to pre-2020 behavior. Limits on wireless payments also rose in places like the United Kingdom—from £35 to £100—reflecting greater trust in account-level digital security rather than reliance on a physical card and PIN.

To meet shopper demand for convenience, merchants have broadened digital payment options—adding wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay—so customers can pay how they prefer. The goal is a frictionless eCommerce experience that fits into everyday life, not just a streamlined moment at the point of sale. This “new normal” prioritizes speed, choice, and security. If a shopper can authenticate quickly and their preferred method is available, they are more likely to complete checkout on the first attempt. How many clicks and fields stand between your customer and a confirmed order?

• Offer multiple wallet options to serve different devices and ecosystems.
• Minimize form fields to reduce abandonment and increase conversion.
• Use clear microcopy about fees, refunds, and delivery to support trust.

Limitation to consider: more payment choices can add operational complexity. Ensure your fraud tools, settlement processes, and customer support are aligned so optionality does not create confusion.

Growth of Buy-now-pay-later

Definition: Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) lets shoppers split purchases into scheduled installments, often with zero-interest plans, directly at checkout. It differs from traditional store financing by being embedded in the digital payment flow and presenting instant approvals.

Large-ticket categories like furniture and electronics have long offered installments, layaway, or in-store financing. Today, BNPL brings micro, zero-percent plans—such as PayPal’s Pay-in-3 and zero percent APR in Pay-in-4-months—straight into online carts. This is among the fastest-growing payment behaviors of the year, helping customers budget while raising average order value and conversion.

About 65% of merchants aim to offer BNPL, and many automatically provide it if they already accept PayPal. Reducing the up-front cost barrier can move hesitant shoppers to buy, especially on mobile, where a wallet-driven flow removes friction. PayPal Credit and similar plans can ease reliance on traditional credit and debit, adding flexibility for both merchants and customers. With Pay-in-3 and related options, buyers settle installments using a debit or credit card over several months.

Questions to reflect on: What price points see the highest drop-off on your site? Would placing BNPL earlier in the product or cart experience reassure customers and prevent abandonment?

• Place BNPL messaging where it matters—on PDPs, the cart, and checkout.
• Clarify schedules and fees so shoppers understand commitments before purchase.
• Track the impact on returns and chargebacks to protect margins.

Potential limitations: While BNPL can lift conversion, it may shift risk profiles or affect cash flow timing depending on your provider’s settlement terms. Monitor repayment behavior and support policies to maintain a healthy balance between growth and exposure.

Acceleration of connected commerce

Definition: Connected commerce coordinates shopping, payments, fulfillment, and service across channels—web, mobile, social, and in-store—so the experience feels continuous to the customer.

Online businesses increasingly use social platforms for discovery, engagement, and conversion. Embedded shopping features and well-planned digital marketing keep customers active with brands. Loyalty programs, user-generated content (UGC), and reviews reinforce trust and support SEO, while first-party data from engaged users helps tailor offers and messaging. During the pandemic, customers participating in loyalty and engagement programs proved more resilient as repeat buyers. The easier and more consistent the experience, the more effective those programs became—customers earned rewards, navigated checkout without friction, and returned more often.

• Integrate social storefronts with your catalog, inventory, and promotions.
• Encourage reviews and UGC to build proof and reduce decision anxiety.
• Unify customer profiles so loyalty and support work the same across touchpoints.

Ask yourself: Can a customer discover your product on social, add to cart on mobile, and complete checkout on desktop without losing their selections or discounts? If not, where does the handoff break?

Constraint to watch: Maintaining parity across channels can strain teams and tools. Set clear governance for content, promotions, and data flows so updates land everywhere consistently and quickly.

Digitization of B2B payments

B2B transactions have long relied on paper checks, with occasional wire transfers. Paper handling is costly—issuance, mailing, approvals, and bank processing add time and manual work across accounting and operations. With the rise of remote work, those inefficiencies became harder to manage, yet roughly 50% of B2B payments still use checks today. The industry is moving toward near-full digital transition by 2025, with another 25% expected to migrate in 2022 alone.

Digitized B2B payments streamline approvals, reconciliation, and cash forecasting. They also reduce errors tied to manual entry and physical handling. What would faster settlement and fewer exceptions mean for your accounts receivable and vendor relationships?

• Adopt electronic invoicing and automated approval workflows.
• Offer multiple digital rails (ACH, cards, virtual cards) based on partner needs.
• Standardize remittance data to improve reconciliation speed and accuracy.

Limitation to plan for: Migration can be slowed by legacy systems, supplier preferences, or compliance requirements. Provide clear onboarding steps and flexible options to bring partners along without disrupting operations.

Attention to data privacy—end to end

As commerce shifts online, the human, store-level control once exercised by a shopkeeper is now replaced by complex, cross-border data flows. Customer information must comply with overlapping regional and local regulations, making privacy governance more challenging than ever. Payment gateways are critical in this chain; First Data and various payment providers have reduced risk exposure by meeting legal requirements—such as GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD—through methods including tokenization.

Tokenization substitutes sensitive card details with secure tokens, limiting the spread of raw data across systems and vendors. Combined with strong access controls and auditing, it helps protect customers while preserving a seamless checkout. Do your tools minimize data retention and restrict access based on role and necessity?

• Map data flows from checkout to settlement to identify where sensitive data lives.
• Use tokenization and encryption to reduce exposure across your stack.
• Document policies for data access, retention, and deletion to support compliance.

Caveat: Privacy and convenience must be balanced. Extra security steps can add friction if not thoughtfully designed. Test flows to keep authentication strong and the path to purchase clear.

Conclusion

Global adoption of digital payments is accelerating, powered by the smartphone. For years, the first “end” in end-to-end was hard to digitize; now, with secure devices and built-in wallets, shoppers confidently buy on mobile—more than 80% of shopping now happens on smartphones—while banks and platforms continue to mature the rest of the journey. BNPL options like Pay-in-3 lower buying barriers, while advances in tokenization and privacy frameworks offer transparency with protection. Together, these shifts are transforming how customers pay and how merchants manage risk, fulfillment, and loyalty in modern eCommerce.

In brief:

• Customers expect fast, flexible, and secure checkouts with their preferred wallets.
• BNPL can boost conversion by easing up-front costs but requires careful risk monitoring.
• Connected commerce ties discovery, checkout, and service into one continuous experience.
• B2B payment digitization cuts manual steps and speeds reconciliation.
• End-to-end privacy, aided by tokenization, protects data across the entire payment flow.

How have your payment preferences changed recently? Which checkout improvements would most reduce friction for your customers? If you have thoughts to share or questions about these trends, feel free to reach us at wish@thegenielab.com. Take a moment to review your checkout today—try a live test order, explore BNPL placement, and assess data handling—so your store is ready for the next wave of digital commerce.