COVID-19 Transmits Chills to 2020 U.S. Merchant Landscape

Pandemic forces near-complete shutdown of retail ecosystem and takes consumer-centric economy with it.

Like a disaster movie mutating into real life, the entire world has been gripped by the novel coronavirus. With no proven treatment and cure for COVID-19 as yet, life and commerce as we knew it have all but ceased. Virus case numbers and financial losses occupy the headlines, and no one knows how this story will end. The business of payments will go on, but merchants face a daunting year. This Viewpoint looks at how the year began and refreshes Mercator Advisory Group’s 2020 Merchant Services Outlook.