Hampshire, UK – 20th July 2026: A new study from global tech strategists Juniper Research has found the total value of POS transactions across payment card terminals expected to grow from $30 trillion in 2026 to $41 trillion in 2031; at a compounded annual growth rate of 6.4%.
The Rise of Unified Commerce
This growth is driven by the accelerating convergence of in-store, online, and mobile sales onto unified commerce platforms, as merchants retire standalone, static terminals in favour of systems that treat every transaction, physical or digital; as part of a single customer experience.
The strongest momentum is coming from verticals such as retail, hospitality, and Quick Service Restaurants (QSR), where channel fragmentation is high. In these environments, unified commerce solutions connect previously fragmented systems across multiple payment acceptance points; allowing the merchant to consolidate multiple channels into a single inventory, payment, and customer record.
An extract from the new report, POS Market 2026-2031, is available as a free download.
Software and Value-added Services to Capture the Convergence
As channels converge, value is migrating away from the terminal and toward the connecting platform. Hardware margins continue to compress, whilst recurring revenue from software, analytics, loyalty, and embedded finance becomes the principal return on each deployment.
Research Analyst Jawad Jahan commented: “Unified commerce is no longer strictly a premium proposition; for some industries such as retail and QSR, it is a baseline expectation. Pure-play hardware vendors are expected to see their margins squeezed, and winners that emerge are those that treat the point of sale as a node in a larger system spanning store, web, and mobile, and monetise the software and data moving across it”.
The new market research suite offers the most comprehensive assessment of the POS market to date; providing analysis and forecasts of over 45,500 datapoints across 61 countries over six years. It includes a ‘Competitor Leaderboard’ and examination of current and future market opportunities.
About Juniper Research
Juniper Research is a global tech strategist firm providing research, data, and forecasting across the fintech, telecoms, and Emerging Tech sectors. For over 20 years, Juniper Research has delivered actionable insights that help industry leaders navigate disruption, seize opportunities, and make confident strategic decisions. www.juniperresearch.com
Press Contact:
Sam Smith, Press Relations
sam.smith@juniperresearch.com
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