E-commerce payments enter the age of managed complexity

The global e-commerce payments market is no longer simply a story of digital adoption. It is becoming a test of operational control.

 2026 Global e-commerce Payments Market

The 2026 Global e-commerce Payments & Fraud Report, produced by the Merchant Risk Council (MRC), Visa Acceptance Solutions and Verifi, with research fielded by B2B International, captures a sector in which merchants are being forced to widen payment choice while defending margins, reducing fraud and preserving customer experience.

Based on a survey of 1,278 e-commerce payment and fraud professionals across 37 countries, the report offers a revealing snapshot of merchant priorities.

The most striking conclusion is that payments and fraud management can no longer be treated as separate functions.

The checkout, the authorisation layer, the fraud stack and the dispute process now form one commercial system. Weakness in any one area can quickly become a margin problem.

Real-time payments become a mainstream acceptance method

Cards, digital wallets and bank transfers remain the foundation of e-commerce acceptance. Yet the momentum behind real-time payments is unmistakable.

According to the report, 43% of merchants now accept real-time payments, placing RTP among the five most widely accepted payment methods globally. Nearly half of merchants that do not yet accept RTP say they are likely to add it within the next year.

This shift matters because RTP changes merchant economics as well as customer experience. Faster settlement, lower friction and consumer familiarity can improve conversion, but instant payments also alter the fraud equation.

Once funds move in real time, merchants have less room for error and less time to intervene. The rise of RTP therefore strengthens the case for sharper pre-transaction intelligence and better orchestration between payment and fraud systems.

Agentic AI payments move from concept to boardroom issue

The report also introduces an early but important theme: agentic AI payments, defined as e-commerce payments initiated by AI assistants or applications on behalf of consumers.

Only 19% of merchants say they already have plans and solutions in place to accept such transactions. However, a further 63% are exploring or implementing the capability.

For merchants, this could become one of the most consequential changes to online commerce since the mobile wallet. If digital agents begin selecting products, initiating purchases and managing repeat transactions, the traditional checkout journey may become less visible to the consumer.

That raises difficult questions around authentication, consent, liability and brand loyalty. Larger merchants are already moving faster, with enterprise businesses ahead of small and mid-sized firms in preparing for AI-mediated commerce.

Fraud teams are being asked to deliver austerity and accuracy

The report’s most commercially significant finding lies in fraud management. Cost containment has moved sharply up the agenda.

The share of merchants naming minimising operational costs as their top fraud priority has tripled since 2024 to 29%, placing it broadly level with reducing fraud and improving customer experience.

This is a profound change in emphasis. Fraud departments are no longer judged only by losses prevented. They are increasingly measured by their ability to reduce manual workload, rationalise tools and demonstrate return on investment.

More than half of merchants expect spending on fraud staff and talent to remain flat or decline over the next two years, while many also expect tighter spending on fraud technologies.

At the same time, merchants identify data and technology as their greatest frustration. Around 80% report challenges linked to data access, tool accuracy, fraud orchestration or effective use of information.

The paradox is obvious: fraud teams need better systems, but many will have to fund improvement through efficiency rather than expansion.

Post-purchase fraud exposes the limits of prevention

Although reported fraud incidence declined for a second consecutive year, the report warns against complacency. The average merchant still experienced 3.8 different fraud attacks during the year, while fraud by order rose from 3.0% to 3.5%.

False positives may also be increasing, creating the familiar danger that fraud controls protect revenue in one place while damaging customer relationships in another.

Post-purchase abuse remains especially troublesome. First-party misuse increased for 64% of merchants, while the average cost of resolving each dispute rose above $80. Meanwhile, 61% reported an increase in refund or policy abuse, with false claims of goods not received the most common form.

The lesson from the MRC, Visa Acceptance Solutions and Verifi report is clear. The winning merchants in 2026 will not be those that merely add more payment methods or more fraud tools. They will be those that connect acceptance, authentication, fraud intelligence and dispute management into a single, disciplined operating model.

In e-commerce, profitability is now decided not just at checkout, but long after the sale.