Digital Transactions
Released as part of the AIM Headline Report series, the Growth & Inflation Analysis 2022 report suggests 2022 is shaping up as a year of correction. While acquirers’ small-business portfolios boomed in 2021 when compared to a lackluster 2020, similar growth is unlikely in 2022.
“The trends suggest that an acquirer’s SMB portfolio may not grow at a similar rate as 2021 growth levels,” Josh Istas, senior director of analytics at Omaha, Neb.-based Strawhecker, says in an email to Digital Transactions News. “The positive influences (for example depressed 2020 volume activity) supporting higher 2021 growth rates are likely to stabilize in 2022.” Higher average ticket sizes in 2021 also helped increase the average account size for acquirers. Strawhecker defines average account size as the total per merchant monthly credit/debit transaction volume less returns.
The forecast is not certain because e-commerce continues to “show strong growth differential compared to 2021, suggesting continued growth in 2022,” Istas says. “Said another way, e-commerce merchants are not experiencing the same deceleration in growth observed within the overall U.S. SMB market.”