Point of sale (POS) activity spans checkout hardware, payment methods, retail spending and the workers who operate payment systems. The figures below distinguish observed results, survey responses, estimates and forecasts across the United States and global markets.
Key Point of Sale Statistics
These highlights summarize the most useful POS figures by period, geography and measured population:
- In 2023, U.S. retail sales totaled $5.1 trillion under the National Retail Federation (NRF) definition.
- For 2024, NRF forecast U.S. retail sales of $5.23 trillion to $5.28 trillion, excluding automotive dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants.
- In 2023, online and other non-store sales reached $1.38 trillion in the United States.
- In 2024 context, brick-and-mortar locations represented approximately 70% of total U.S. retail sales.
- In 2023, digital wallets represented an estimated 30% of global consumer POS spend.
- From 2014 to 2024, digital wallets rose from 2% to 16% of estimated U.S. POS spending.
- From 2014 to 2024, cash fell from 44% to 15% of estimated U.S. in-store spend.
- In 2024, digital wallets accounted for an estimated 32% of global POS spend.
- In a 2024 U.S. consumer study, 49% wanted more self-checkout options.
- In the same 2024 U.S. retail study, 16% of surveyed businesses enabled self-checkout.
- In that 2024 study, 22% of surveyed U.S. businesses had mobile POS solutions.
- In 2024, 67% of Federal Reserve-surveyed businesses used digital wallets during the prior 12 months.
- In 2024, 16% of surveyed businesses reported experiencing fraud during the prior 12 months.
- In May 2025, the median U.S. cashier wage was $15.81 per hour.
- In 2025, about 3,106,300 people held cashier jobs in the United States.
- From 2025 to 2035, U.S. cashier employment is projected to decline 6%.
- By 2030, payment apps are forecast to reach 46% of global POS value, or $15.6 trillion.
Contents
- Retail scale and in-store spending
- Payment methods and digital-wallet trends
- Mobile POS, self-checkout and faster checkout
- Business payment adoption and customer choice
- POS costs, fraud and payment pain points
- Cashier employment, wages and outlook
- POS forecasts and the future of in-store payments
Point of Sale Statistics: Retail Scale and In-Store Spending
The NRF’s retail totals establish the scale in which POS systems operate, but they are not a POS-register total. Its definition includes store and online retail categories while excluding automotive dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants.
| Measure | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. retail sales | 2023 | $5.1 trillion |
| U.S. retail-sales growth | 2023 vs. 2022 | 3.6% |
| Online and other non-store sales | 2023 | $1.38 trillion |
| Brick-and-mortar share of total retail sales | 2024 forecast context | Approximately 70% |
Source: NRF 2024 Annual Retail Sales Forecast FAQ. The brick-and-mortar estimate is rounded, and physical-store share is not identical to every POS transaction.
For 2024, NRF forecast total U.S. retail sales of $5.23 trillion to $5.28 trillion, representing nominal growth of 2.5% to 3.5% from 2023. It also forecast online and other non-store sales of $1.47 trillion to $1.50 trillion, up 7% to 9% year over year.
These online figures should not be subtracted mechanically from total retail sales to create a POS total. The categories overlap with the broader retail definition, and the non-store measure is not POS-only.
Point of Sale Payment Statistics and Digital-Wallet Trends
Worldpay estimates show a major shift in how consumers fund checkout, while also warning that the denominators differ between POS, in-store, e-commerce and combined commerce.
| Payment measure | Period | Share or value |
|---|---|---|
| Digital wallets, global consumer POS spend | 2023 | 30% |
| Digital-wallet transaction value, global online and POS | 2023 | $13.9 trillion |
| Digital wallets, global e-commerce spend | 2023 | 50% |
| Digital wallets, global POS spend | 2024 | 32% |
| Digital wallets, global e-commerce spend | 2024 | 53% |
Source: Worldpay Global Payments Report 2024: Digital Wallet Maturity Ushers in a Golden Age of Payments. Worldpay figures are estimates based on consumer surveys, secondary research and expert validation.
The U.S. trend is different in scale but similar in direction. Worldpay estimates that digital wallets increased from 2% of U.S. POS spending in 2014 to 16% in 2024, while cash declined from 44% of U.S. in-store spending to 15% over the same period.
Credit, debit and prepaid cards together funded 67% of U.S. consumer spending across e-commerce and POS in 2024. That combined-channel figure should not be read as a POS-only card share.
Worldpay also reports a broader global category in which digital wallets, account-to-account payments, buy now, pay later and cryptocurrencies together increased from 3% of in-person shopping value in 2014 to 38% in 2024. The category is therefore broader than wallets alone.
POS Adoption: Mobile, Self-Checkout and Faster Checkout
The 2024 Adyen Index retail study compares what U.S. consumers wanted with what surveyed retailers reported enabling. Those are preference and capability measures, not a census of usage or transaction speed.
- 25% of surveyed U.S. consumers wanted technology to make in-store shopping faster in the 2024 study.
- 49% of surveyed U.S. consumers wanted more self-checkout options.
- Only 16% of surveyed U.S. businesses enabled self-checkout.
- Only 22% of surveyed U.S. businesses had mobile POS solutions.
- Only 21% of surveyed retailers supported one-click checkout, a feature primarily associated with online checkout.
- QR-code payments grew 11% year over year in the study’s reported measure of popularity.
Source: Adyen Index: Retail 2024. The study’s business sample and self-reported capabilities do not measure all retailers.
Cross-channel acceptance also remained limited in the same study. Thirty-two percent of surveyed businesses accepted digital wallets both online and in-store, while 18% supported buy now, pay later in both channels.
The gap between consumer requests and reported retailer capabilities is descriptive rather than causal. It indicates room for adoption, but the figures do not establish that adding a particular checkout technology produces a measured sales or satisfaction outcome.
Business Payment Adoption and Customer-Choice Data
The Federal Reserve’s 2024 Business Payments Study measures whether surveyed businesses used payment methods during the prior 12 months. It covers business payments broadly, so these percentages are not consumer POS transaction shares.
| Business payment method | Businesses using it in prior 12 months, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Checks | 73% |
| Digital wallets | 67% |
| Credit cards | 63% |
| Cash | 62% |
| Debit cards | 61% |
| Next-day ACH | 60% |
| Same-day ACH | 56% |
Source: 2024 Business Payments Study. “Used” means any reported use during the prior 12 months, not a share of payment volume.
Ninety-two percent of businesses in the study focused on improving cash flow in 2024. That is a reported priority, not a measured improvement in financial performance.
The year-to-year comparison shows increased use of some newer methods. Digital-wallet use rose from 44% in 2023 to 67% in 2024, and same-day ACH use rose from 45% to 56%; the survey comparison does not establish a causal adoption effect.
POS Costs, Fraud and Payment Pain Points
The available business data measure payment use and reported fraud rather than a universal POS cost per transaction. That distinction matters because hardware, software, processing, labor and losses are not represented by one supplied cost figure.
In the Federal Reserve’s 2024 business survey, 16% of businesses reported experiencing fraud during the prior 12 months. The measure covers business payments broadly and is self-reported, so it is not a POS-only fraud-loss rate.
Instant payments were used by 16% of surveyed businesses in 2024. This was the first year the cited comparison asked about instant-payment usage, so it should not be treated as a multi-year trend.
The payment-method mix also shows why “adoption” needs a defined denominator. A business can use cash, checks, cards, ACH and digital wallets within the same 12-month period, and use during that period does not reveal the share of transactions or dollars handled by each method.
Cashier Workforce, POS Wages and Employment Outlook
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) cashier occupation includes workers processing payments with POS systems and related equipment. It is therefore a labor-market indicator connected to POS operations, not a measure of POS software or hardware employment.
| U.S. cashier measure | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Employment | 2025 | About 3,106,300 jobs |
| Median wage | May 2025 | $15.81 per hour |
| Lowest-paid 10% threshold | May 2025 | Below $11.79 per hour |
| Highest-paid 10% threshold | May 2025 | Above $19.43 per hour |
| Projected employment change | 2025–2035 | Down 6% |
| Projected annual openings | 2025–2035 | 521,300 per year |
Source: Cashiers: Occupational Outlook Handbook. The annual openings are mostly replacement openings, not net new jobs.
BLS projects cashier employment at 2,905,700 in 2035, a decline of 200,600 from 2025. The agency cites technology and online sales among the contributors to the projected change.
Food and beverage retailers employed 30% of U.S. cashiers in 2025, the largest listed industry share. Gasoline stations employed 19%, and general merchandise retailers employed 16%; these are BLS industry-distribution figures for the occupation.
POS Forecasts and the Future of In-Store Payments
Worldpay’s forward-looking figures describe payment-app growth rather than guaranteed outcomes. Its payment-app category includes wallets, buy now, pay later, account-to-account and banking apps.
Worldpay forecasts payment apps to reach 46% of global POS value by 2030, corresponding to $15.6 trillion of global POS value. The forecast is expressed in value, not transaction count.
Worldpay also says payment apps are growing 135% faster than overall POS payments globally in its 2026 report comparison. The underlying period and definitions follow Worldpay’s methodology, so the relative-growth statement is not a universal industry growth rate.
For the nearer-term global wallet outlook, Worldpay projects digital wallets to exceed $25 trillion in combined online and POS transaction value by 2027 and to represent 49% of all online and POS sales. Those are combined-channel forecasts, not POS-only projections.
Worldpay’s 2025 report tracks payment trends across 40 key markets. That coverage count describes the report’s scope, while the adoption and forecast figures above retain their own stated geographies, periods and definitions.