A new study from global tech strategists Juniper Research has found that the total number of Soft POS installations globally is set to rise from 22 million in 2026 to 159 million by the end of 2031; an increase of over 600%.
The growth in Soft POS installations globally is driven primarily by its cost advantage over physical terminals, as it eliminates any hardware costs completely. This cost reduction disproportionately favours SMEs, micro-merchants, and field or pop-up use cases; as Soft POS extends the addressable market for card acceptance beyond its historical boundary set by dedicated terminals. As such, much of this soft POS growth represents net new merchants accepting card; a vital source of new card volumes in an area previously difficult to reach.
Emerging Markets Leapfrogging Legacy Infrastructure
The research found that markets that lack, or never adopted traditional POS infrastructure due to its costs and friction have instead skipped directly to Soft POS and adjacent rails such as QR codes; bypassing dedicated hardware entirely. Drawing on existing high mobile penetration rates, markets such as Sri Lanka, Egypt, and Indonesia demonstrate how QR-based acceptance infrastructure has catalysed growth in contact-free in-store payments.
Senior Research Analyst Jawad Jahan commented: “For merchants, Soft POS removes the friction associated around legacy POS terminals. In mature markets, this translates to growth in SMEs and pop-up merchants as card acceptance becomes cost effective. Similarly, in emerging markets without traditional infrastructure, Soft POS drives financial inclusion amongst merchants priced out of formal payment acceptance methods.”
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An extract from the new report, POS Market 2026-2031, is available as a free download.
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