TROY, Mich.— Small business owners are accepting more ways to pay than ever before as consumers increasingly favor digital wallets, buy now, pay later services and even cryptocurrency, putting greater pressure on the companies that process those transactions, according to a new study by J.D. Power.
The 2026 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study found that the speed and reliability of payment processing, along with the ability to control costs and avoid software or hardware problems, have become the biggest drivers of satisfaction with merchant services providers.
“Merchant services providers have become a vital link in the way small businesses manage payments,” John Cabell, managing director of payments intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement. “The data in this year’s study spotlights a rising tension between business owners’ growing pressure to offer multiple payment options and their increased desire to pass processing costs onto retail customers.”
The Findings
The study found that 92% of U.S. merchants now accept digital wallet payments, up four percentage points from 2024.
The analysis further found:
- Acceptance of buy now, pay later services has also grown, with 58% of small businesses offering the option, up from 54% two years ago. BNPL now ranks as the fourth most accepted payment method, behind debit or credit cards, digital wallets and cash.
- At the same time, acceptance of personal checks continues to fall. Just 57% of small businesses now take checks, down from 63% in 2024, J.D. Power reported.
- Cryptocurrency adoption remains limited but is growing. About 19% of U.S. small businesses accept crypto payments, up from 15% in 2025.
- According to J.D. Power, sentiment is also improving, with 37% of merchants expressing a favorable view of cryptocurrency. Roughly one-third of businesses that do not currently accept crypto said they would be likely to do so if their merchant services provider enabled the option.
Trade-Offs
“The expansion of payment choices has come with trade-offs. Slightly more than one-third of small businesses now impose credit card surcharges, a practice that has grown most among new businesses and restaurants,” J.D. Power said. “However, 32% of merchants said customers occasionally or frequently cancel purchases when a surcharge is added.
J.D.Power reported it further found point-of-sale screens that prompt customers for tips, donations or surcharges are also contributing to friction. Sixty-one percent of merchants use at least one such default screen, but system glitches are becoming more common. Only about half of customers never encounter a problem during a transaction, down from 55% last year.
Satisfaction Rankings
In the study’s satisfaction rankings, Bank of America placed first with a score of 750 on a 1,000-point scale. Shopify ranked second with 733, followed by Chase Payment Solutions at 726.
The study is based on responses from 4,407 small business customers surveyed between August and October 2025 and measures satisfaction across six categories, including payment processing, cost, data security and technology quality.
