Alternative Payment Methods In 2026: The Key To Winning Global Customers

Cash’s share of global payments fell to 46% in 2025, down from 50% in 2023. What’s replacing it is an entire layer of alternative payment methods (APMs), including digital wallets, account-to-account transfers, mobile money, buy now pay later (BNPL), and local card schemes.

For businesses, this matters because a payment method that converts in Brazil can be irrelevant in Germany. There is no single, global way to pay, and for merchants expanding across borders, understanding that fragmentation is now a bigger competitive advantage than accepting more payment methods.

The state of payments in 2026

The global payments industry processed 3.4 trillion transactions worth $1.8 quadrillion in 2023 alone, generating a $2.4 trillion revenue pool that grew at roughly 7% annually between 2018 and 2023. That revenue pool is projected to exceed $3.1 trillion by 2028.

Latin America is a particular bright spot, with its overall digital payment market projected to reach approximately USD 0.3 trillion in revenue by 2027, driven directly by mobile wallet adoption, real-time rails like PIX, and expanding financial inclusion.

Buy now, pay later is a smaller slice of the picture but a fast-growing one. Global BNPL users reached roughly 380 million in 2024 and are projected to climb to around 670 million by 2028. It’s not replacing cards or wallets any time soon, but it’s becoming a permanent fixture at checkout, especially in Latin American markets.

Why global payment preferences don’t exist

China has essentially completed its shift to APMs. Alipay and WeChat Pay together account for 90% of China’s mobile payment transactions, making it one of the most concentrated payment markets in the world.

In India, the UPI-driven wallet ecosystem accounts for 68% of online and 61% of in-store transaction value, and its reach is expanding fast. UPI acceptance has spread to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the UAE, and is turning a domestic payment rail into a regional one.

Similarly, in Brazil, Pix made up 42% of e-commerce in 2025 alone. Additionally, Merchant demand is pushing Pix acceptance into Argentina, Chile, Portugal, Spain, and the United States, making it another great example of a local payment method becoming cross-border infrastructure.

Africa has an entirely different payment landscape where cards have little to no value. Mobile money accounts across the continent surpassed 1 billion by the end of 2024, representing 53% of all mobile money wallets globally, with USD 1 trillion transacted that year alone.

Is cash disappearing?

Though cash isn’t disappearing entirely, its decline is happening at very different speeds depending on where a business operates.

Cash fell from 50% of worldwide payments in 2023 to 46% in 2025. That’s a rapid decline for a physical currency, but it’s not uniform either.

In the US, the Federal Reserve’s own research shows cash is holding steady rather than vanishing. Consumers made an average of 7 cash payments a month in 2024, unchanged since 2020, and more than 90% of US consumers say they intend to keep using cash going forward.

Compare that to Nigeria, where electronic payment value is nearly doubling year over year, or Brazil, where Pix alone now moves more value monthly than the entire card network combined, and it’s clear that the question “Is cash disappearing?” doesn’t have a single answer. It depends entirely on the country in question.

How to build a local payment strategy that converts?

When trying to win international customers, most businesses’ first instinct is to add more payment methods. However, every additional payment method a merchant supports must be managed, reconciled, and kept compliant. Offering options that the target audience in a given market doesn’t use adds overhead rather than improving conversions.

A better approach is to match rails to the market. For instance, businesses targeting the European market should focus on the payment methods commonly used by European consumers. In contrast, those planning an expansion into markets like Nigeria or Kenya should prioritise mobile money, which is the primary rail in those countries.

The rule of thumb is to keep cards as the baseline, and layer the right local and alternative methods on top, market by market.

Unlimit maps hyper-local payment ecosystems, local rails, and local licensing into a single programmable operating layer, so merchants can ensure their checkout reflects how people in a given market pay.

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