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Shoppers worldwide are flocking to online marketplaces and social commerce for convenience, variety, and competitive pricing. While price remains key, brand trust is becoming a major factor in certain markets. As these platforms drive discovery and sales, brands must adapt to stay competitive. Here are three ways digital shopping habits are evolving among consumers worldwide.

Social commerce is the fastest-growing US retail channel, and retailers will need to offer a seamless payment experience to maximize the opportunity. Understanding payment preferences will be key to ensuring conversion at checkout.

Conference panelists discussed changes in the maturing industry as it ripples across the payments space

Leading cash-back credit cards need to drive acquisition in a cutthroat segment of the card market. Our exclusive consumer survey data reveals which emerging features issuers should invest in to win over customers.

To view the full user number forecast for each leading BNPL fintech, click Affirm, Afterpay, or Klarna. But growth among leading fintechs will taper in the face of greater BNPL competition. Banks continue to roll out post-purchase payment flexibility features, and Citi even offers a point-of-sale BNPL option in partnership with Amazon.

It could also be a big opportunity for other device-agnostic payments apps that don鈥檛 offer contactless payments鈥攍ike BNPL firms Klarna and Affirm. That could help them finally break into in-store retail. Our take: On its own, Vipps isn鈥檛 going to take down Apple Pay鈥檚 preeminence.

US digital commerce platforms will process $471.37 billion of their own payments by 2026. As a result, they鈥檒l enjoy stronger customer relationships, added revenues, and cross-sell synergy.

It can help Google build brand loyalty among Gen Alpha and better compete with Apple Wallet

In the US, Amazon offers some card-linked installment options, along with Affirm. Walmart also offers Affirm and is building out a BNPL solution with its majority-owned fintech One.

This should help boost volume for both the booking platform and for the card-linked installment offering, given BNPL鈥檚 popularity in the travel category and an overall spike in popularity for card-linked BNPL

Gen Zers are flocking to emerging payment methods, but card-based options, led by debit cards, remain supreme. Payment providers must align offerings with Gen Z鈥檚 preferences now as their spending power grows.

Digital technologies are reshaping customers' in-store payment experience. Here鈥檚 what payment providers must know about in-store payment digitization trends.鈥�

In June, Apple shut down Apple Pay Later and will offer third-party BNPL options like Affirm instead. Appearing on Apple Pay would be a large opportunity for Zip to increase its users鈥� transaction frequency and in-store transaction volume. Our take: As BNPL user growth slows, securing large partnerships will become more important for BNPL fintechs like Zip to maintain growth.

Reports swirled in September that Affirm is readying to launch its own service called Affirm Plus. The bigger picture: Klarna is preparing for an IPO in the US. The BNPL fintech has been on a profitability push ahead of a potential IPO. And it鈥檚 working: Globally, Klarna achieved its first quarterly profit since 2019 in Q3 2023, bringing in SEK 130 million ($11.89 million).

And Affirm now boasts that interest-bearing loans鈥攑reviously anathema to the BNPL conceit鈥攎ake up 73% of its product composition. Affirm also hiked its maximum interest rate to 36% last year, well above the 24.7% national average for credit cards. Anti-BNPL pearl-clutching hasn鈥檛 helped.

The tie-up brings Klarna to more merchants' checkout pages without the need for individual merchant partnerships, helping it save time and money and more quickly ramp up its payments volume

Affirm recently partnered with an eyewear retailer, for example, and Klarna partnered with a B2B car-rental company. Greater acceptance. BNPL debit cards and partnerships like Affirm鈥檚 with Walmart have made it easier to use BNPL in stores. What鈥檚 next? All of these drivers will boost BNPL鈥檚 growth throughout 2024.

Bain's survey affirms our updated retail health forecasts, which estimate that fewer US adults will visit a retail clinic each year through 2026. Health plan-owned primary care companies will capture a greater share of the market than all other nontraditional players. These entities are projected to make up around 20% of the overall primary care market in 2030, up from the 15% Bain predicted in 2022.

Consumers are turning to the payment method to mitigate financial pressures this holiday season, but overextension concerns persist