Site Navigation

At Stripe Sessions in May 2025, San Francisco, Rajeev Yerukalapudi, EVP, Global Head of Strategy and Partnerships at Verifone, delivered a compelling keynote on how boundless payments are revolutionizing the future of commerce. This article dives deeper into the themes of his presentation, exploring how unified payment ecosystems, consumer-centric experiences, and innovative technologies are shaping the next era of retail and in-store commerce.

Value exchange has never existed in a vacuum. It's always been a reflection of the time, cultural norms, and sensibilities of the environment around it.

We've seen this over the last 50 years with the evolution of in-store payments. In the early 20th century, cash was king. Consumers and merchants relied on physical currency to pay for goods and services. With the advent of cards decades later, everything changed. Consumers could make larger purchases or pay over time, and merchants benefited from a faster checkout process and increased sales.

Today, we've evolved from these analog methods and have embraced various tap-and-go and embedded payment tools, like digital wallets, QR codes, one-click checkout, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). We've also shifted from a purely physical world to a blended landscape where shopping spans online stores, mobile apps, physical retail, and even social platforms like Instagram and TikTok, transforming how, where, and when people choose to pay.

With every new payment option and channel comes even more complexity, contributing to a disjointed payments ecosystem that leads to a commerce journey that's just as fragmented. But whether it's cash or credit cards, or online or in-store, one currency will always reign supreme for consumers—convenience. 

The question is how do we achieve it in a time when more disruptive forces are on the horizon that will upend the in-store payments experience? The answer is boundless payments. 

How boundless payments drive connected commerce—in-store and beyond 

Boundless payments drive connected commerce. However, to get to this end goal, we have to make a shift from our constrained status quo—characterized by channel gaps, finite payment options, rigidity, deeply entrenched silos, and commerce limitations—to a boundless payments state that unifies omnichannel, meets any consumer preference, acts as a revenue- and loyalty-builder, and produces distinctive commerce experiences.

To execute boundless payments, merchants and commerce providers must prioritize five success criteria: 

1. Embrace consumer convenience and choice: They must leverage multiple payment form factors and modalities to support connected commerce.
2. Eliminate complexity and barriers to growth: They must partner with a provider that offers access to all payment methods, including local, global, and emerging options, and an unmatched global footprint of integrations.
3. Operate with integrity: They must harness payment solutions with built-in security and continuous fraud mitigation to better protect customer data.
4. Outpace the market: Be ready for what's next: They must find partners who expand their capacity and ability to capture every payments innovation – such as cashless, omnichannel, biometrics, and artificial intelligence (AI) — to stay ahead in an evolving marketplace.
5. Capitalize on global payments expertise: They must have access to deep tech experience, global knowledge, and in-region experts to meet consumer payment preferences across channels and satisfy varying compliance requirements across jurisdictions. 

3 trends shaping the future in-store commerce and how boundless payments drive success

With boundless payments, which bring together best-in-class payments infrastructure, innovations, and partners, companies can capitalize on three critical trends currently reshaping in-store commerce.

1. The connected commerce journey

Rapid eCommerce growth during the pandemic had many experts believing digital retail would eventually achieve parity with in-store retail. Although eCommerce continues to grow, this prediction hasn't yet fully materialized.

In-store shopping, on the other hand, shows no sign of slowing down. Physical retail will account for close to 80% of global retail sales in 2025. Additionally, just under $22 trillion of the nearly $29 trillion in worldwide retail sales in 2028 will still happen offline, according to Forrester.

Brick-and-mortar has broad appeal. It's not just boomers who are shopping in-store. Recent research indicates 97% of Gen Zers shop there, too. But today, “in-store” can mean many things: big-box retail, standalone shops, pop-ups at events, drive-throughs, mobile carts, or franchised locations. The bottom line is that consumers enjoy the tactile, sensory, and communal experience of in-person shopping—they still have to see it to believe it. 

The winners of next-gen in-store commerce will be those who create a more connected journey across in-store and online touchpoints and think through the entire end-to-end commerce experience.  Leading retailers are already bridging physical and digital channels with services like BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In Store), BORIS (Buy Online, Return In Store), ship-to-store, and curbside pickup, creating seamless interactions that meet consumers wherever they are. With a focus on partner-driven integrations, robust security, and payments innovation, boundless payments support connected commerce.

In the real world, this looks like pre-purchase engagement through loyalty offers, frictionless payment moments at checkout driven by self-service kiosks or tap-and-go payment terminals, and follow-up incentives that speak to a consumer's previous buying behavior and shopping interactions both online and off. Modern point-of-sale (POS) and payments software and hardware drives every stage of this end-to-end experience—from mobile point-of-sale devices that enable payments anywhere in-store to e-receipt systems that link each purchase to a future discount for the same item.

Modern consumers crave convenience. By embracing boundless payments, merchants and commerce providers can provide it—wherever, whenever, and however they shop. 

2. Personalized experiences

It's no secret consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognize, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations. According to McKinsey, 7 in 10 consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and nearly 8 in 10 get frustrated when this doesn't happen.

Today, biometrics and AI are driving this kind of next-level personalization. From smart kiosks and real-time in-store recommendations, to contactless payments and facial recognition, both technologies are already reshaping the payments landscape and will play pivotal roles in connected commerce. In fact, 87% of retailers have already deployed AI in one area of their business, and biometric-enabled in-store transactions grew by 138% from 2023 to 2024, indicating consumers are increasingly comfortable with the technology.

With AI and biometrics, merchants and partners are even better positioned to deliver personalized experiences that reduce this friction. Personalized in-store retail takes commerce experiences from transactional to tailored, making shoppers feel seen, understood, and more likely to convert and buy more. But there’s another powerful side to this equation: using in-store behavior to personalize the digital experience.

For example, if a customer buys red Nike sneakers in-store, size 8, that insight can be used to tailor the online journey by showing relevant accessories, color-matched apparel, or alerts when similar products drop. This reverse flow of intelligence, from physical to digital, creates a feedback loop that deepens customer relationships and drives loyalty.

Biometrics and AI-driven personalization will transform how merchants and partners view and drive value exchange. That value exchange won't be purely about payments or point-of-sale interactions. It will be an integral part of a connected commerce experience that intimately understands a customer's wants and needs.

This has and will continue to materialize in various forms, such as one-click shopping that streamlines online purchases, simple click-to-cart options on a quick service restaurant's mobile app based on a customer's previous order history, and frictionless fuel payments at petro stations where in-app geolocation data accelerates the checkout process.

By leveraging a purpose-built ecosystem that enables boundless payments, merchants and partners will be nimble enough to execute new payment types and modalities and meet customer preferences for personalized experiences. When they do, they'll transform payments from the end of a transaction to the beginning of an ongoing relationship—and conversation—with consumers. 

3. Experience is now central to the commerce continuum

Omnichannel has long been the ultimate goal for retailers. But it has now evolved from a nice-to-have capability to a critical business necessity. Retailers must implement an omnichannel strategy to stay ahead. Countless research points to why: Companies with omnichannel customer engagement see an average revenue increase of 179% compared to companies that don't employ this strategy. A nearly 2X revenue increase isn't that surprising when you consider 7 in 10 retail consumers are omnichannel shoppers and these shoppers deliver a 30% higher lifetime return on investment compared to single-channel shoppers.

Merchants now must engage consumers across multiple channels to reap these rewards. To accomplish this, they have to transform payments from a utility to an experience. And we're already seeing experience serve as the connective tissue of commerce. Digital experiences are now coming in-store in powerful ways, combining the benefits of emerging technology with the tangibility of physical retail. Shoppers are using store apps or scanning QR codes on in-store displays to compare prices, find related items, read reviews, check inventory, or even make a purchase directly from their phones. Customers are also earning loyalty points for both online and in-store purchases, providing a seamless experience across channels. Several retailers have even installed in-store interactive kiosks or digital displays that allow customers to search for products, check sizes and colors, or find out if an item is in stock at another location—all in real-time. Some even make personalized recommendations, such as showing products that are frequently bought. While this is common online, delivering the same level of contextual, data-driven suggestions is much more difficult in stores.

As these examples showcase that we're at the precipice of making the omnichannel dream a reality. Merchants and retailers are advancing their capabilities to provide personalized experiences based on consumers' cross-channel behavior. They're using next-generation payment devices and software solutions to give shoppers flexibility in how they buy products—whether it's home delivery, in-store pickup, or buying in-store after browsing online. They're working with payments providers to tokenize payment credentials, so customers can start a purchase online and complete it in-store without re-entering payment information. And they're facilitating frictionless returns and exchanges across channels, delivering the kind of seamless experiences that build long-term shopper loyalty.

This is how we transform our previously elusive omnichannel vision into real-world omnichannel execution that meets customers' expectations at every touchpoint and across every channel. 

The next era of payments will be boundless

The future of retail isn't just omnichannel—it's experiential, seamless, and deeply personalized. Boundless payments give merchants the tools, infrastructure, and integration-led innovative capabilities they need to embed payments into every touchpoint and harness it as an opportunity to drive value, loyalty, and connection.

Our currently fragmented payments ecosystem only leads to disconnected commerce experiences. But with boundless payments, we can move away from payments infrastructure built for another era and create a composable, integrated ecosystem that enables merchants and commerce providers to create any payment experience anywhere in the world.

Boundless payments are all about breaking free of the confines that have historically prevented businesses from reaching their full potential, whether that's geography, modality, or integration complexity. By removing these barriers, boundless payments empower merchants and partners to unlock new payment possibilities, drive connected commerce, and deliver the ultimate currency for consumers—unmatched convenience. 

Ready to deliver smarter, faster in-person experiences? Discover how Verifone and Stripe give you the tools, tech and trusted hardware to scale confidently.