There are more than 180 million micro and small merchants operating in developing and emerging markets globally. These merchants serve the world’s lowest income customers at a scale that is staggering. Every day, small merchants interact with more than 4.5 billion customers. While individually each merchant generates low revenues, they collectively influence the global economy significantly; the financial transactions they conduct total an estimated U.S. $6.5 trillion annually.

Since small merchants generate low transaction values and often run their businesses informally, little effort has been made by financial service providers to incorporate them into the digital economy. However, given the number of financial transactions and their vast customer network, small merchants have the potential to spark huge growth in digital financial services. If these merchants were to adopt cashless payment systems, and therefore encourage their customers to use digital payment accounts, they would provide a critical pathway toward financial inclusion for themselves and their low-income customers. The movement to digital payments would also present a substantial commercial opportunity for the financial sector; transaction fees alone could amount to an estimated U.S. $35 billion a year in additional value for financial service providers.