SumUp has officially launched its Tap to Pay on iPhone product for UK merchants, enabling sole traders, market stallholders, and micro-businesses to accept contactless card and digital wallet payments using only their smartphone. The rollout follows a six-month pilot with approximately 4,500 merchants across London, Manchester, and Birmingham, during which SumUp reported a 28% increase in average transaction values compared to cash-only equivalents. The service supports all major card schemes as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The launch is timed to capitalise on the UK's raised contactless payment ceiling, which increased from £45 to £100 in October 2021 and has since driven a sustained shift in consumer behaviour. According to UK Finance data, contactless payments accounted for 37% of all UK payment transactions in 2024, up from 32% the previous year. SumUp's UK managing director, Karina Sokolovskaya, said the elimination of hardware barriers was particularly significant for the estimated 1.4 million UK sole traders who had previously been unable to justify the cost of a dedicated card terminal.

The move places SumUp in direct competition with Square, which launched its own tap-to-pay offering in the UK earlier this year, as well as Zettle, the PayPal-owned point-of-sale provider that remains popular among small retailers. Analysts at Juniper Research forecast that software-based point-of-sale solutions will process more than £18 billion in UK transactions by 2027, representing a threefold increase from current levels. SumUp's standard transaction fee of 1.69% positions it competitively, though some merchant groups have called for greater transparency around interchange and scheme fee pass-throughs.