Walk through any checkout today and you'll find the same thing happening, over and over: a customer pausing to decide. Debit or credit? Pay now or split it into four? Tap the card, or open the BNPL app? They're making that call constantly. In fact, according to our latest State of Credit Report, 59% of consumers used both debit and credit in the past 90 days, switching based on what they were buying and how their month was going. And 79% of people who use Buy Now, Pay Later keep using it even after they have a credit card in their wallet.
In other words, your customers are already orchestrating their own payments, manually, across multiple cards and apps because no single product does everything they need. That behavior is the most important signal in retail right now, and it points to a clear opportunity: the brands that consolidate that complexity into one experience will own the moment of purchase.
Marqeta's 2026 State of Credit Report, based on a survey of 5,000 consumers and small businesses across the US and UK, makes the case in detail. Here's what it means for retail in 2026, and how a new category of payment product is helping brands rise to it.
What are flexible credentials?
Flexible credentials are multi-rail card products that allow a single physical or virtual card to access multiple funding sources and payment methods. At the point of sale, the cardholder selects how to pay (debit, credit, or BNPL) without switching cards or apps.
Key characteristics:
- Single credential, multiple rails: One card connects to debit accounts, credit lines, and installment financing
- Real-time selection: Payment method chosen at checkout, not predetermined
- Issuer-processor enabled: Requires an issuer processor certified to route transactions across funding sources dynamically
This differs from traditional card products, where each card is tied to one funding source and one payment rail.
Margins are tight. Personalization is how you protect them.
Inflation, labor costs, and rising transaction fees are squeezing retail margins from every direction. The pressure is to grow profitability while still investing in customer experience, and the data shows exactly where that investment pays off.
Personalized, data-driven payment experiences are no longer a nice-to-have. They're a differentiator customers actively reward. The report found that 71% of SMBs are more likely to use a card from a vendor they already do business with if that vendor offers personalized rewards based on their spending habits. The relationship already exists. The spending data already exists. What's usually missing is the product that connects the two.
That's the margin opportunity in a sentence: brands that turn transaction data into tailored, relevant experiences, personalized rewards, smart financing offers at checkout, flexibility matched to the moment, differentiate themselves without competing on price alone.
Loyalty is harder to earn—and the old model is showing cracks
In a market of endless options and total price transparency, loyalty is easier to lose than ever. But the conventional fix, launch a branded card, attach some rewards, is no longer the sure bet it used to be.
The report surfaces real strain in the traditional single-brand co-brand model. Among the most-cited frustrations:
- 18% of consumers say the rewards are only valuable at one brand
- 64% of 18–44 year olds prefer co-brand rewards that work across multiple brands rather than being locked to one
The card that only matters inside your store is increasingly the card that gets left at home.
That doesn't mean retail loyalty is dead, it means it has to be more flexible. There's clear appetite for brand-anchored products that don't trap value in a single place: 33% of consumers are interested in co-brand debit cards, rising to 41% among 18–44 year olds. The brands that win loyalty now are the ones offering a credential that carries the relationship without limiting where and how customers can use it.
The checkout is where it all comes together
Here's the friction most retailers are still designing around the edges of. Cart abandonment hovers near 70%, often tied to payment friction. But the deeper issue isn't just slow checkout, it's that customers are forced to choose, manually, between the payment methods they're already juggling. Every one of those decisions is a moment to lose the sale.
The demand for a better answer is explicit:
- 48% of consumers aged 18–44 want a single card that can switch between debit, credit, and BNPL at the point of purchase
- 23% of consumers 65 and older express the same interest
- 71% of consumers already carrying multiple cards want this capability
How flexible credentials work at checkout:
- Customer taps their flexible credential card
- Card prompts payment method selection (debit, credit, or BNPL)
- Issuer processor routes the transaction to the chosen funding source in real time
- Transaction completes on a single tap
Instead of reaching for a different card or a different app, they make one tap—and you capture the sale instead of surrendering it to hesitation.
Consumer consolidation intent: Among consumers interested in flexible credentials:
- 67% would replace their current debit card
- 71% would replace their credit card
- 71% would stop using separate BNPL apps altogether
This isn't a new product layered on top of the wallet. For the customers who want it, it's a consolidation play; exactly the top-of-wallet position every retailer is competing for.
And the interest concentrates right where retail lives. 60% of SMBs are interested in flexible credentials overall, rising to 82% among those planning to apply for a card in the next 12 months. Retail SMBs lead interest across industries, alongside technology and financial services.
Beyond the checkout: payouts and global reach
The same logic—remove friction, meet people where they are—extends past the buy button.
On the workforce side, frontline turnover is often driven by slow pay and limited financial flexibility. Embedded payroll tools like earned wage access and branded payroll cards let employees reach their earnings as soon as they've earned them, improving retention and satisfaction. And as retailers expand internationally, embedded multi-currency payment solutions make it possible to sell across borders, and unify in-store, online, and mobile commerce into one seamless omnichannel experience, without the operational drag.
The opening most retailers haven't noticed yet
Here's the strategic shift hiding in the data. For decades, credit lived with traditional banks. That's changing fast, and retailers are positioned to benefit.
Non-bank financial services comfort levels:
- 66% of SMBs are comfortable using financial services from non-banks
- 83% of SMBs planning to apply for a credit card in the next 12 months express comfort
- 44% of consumers aged 25–44 are comfortable
- 52% of consumers interested in flexible credentials are comfortable
Trust is no longer a category-level question. It's a brand-level one and retailers with active loyalty relationships and rich transaction data already hold the brand equity that earns it.
Put plainly: a retailer with a strong brand and an engaged customer base has a credible foundation to offer the kind of modern, flexible payment products customers used to expect only from a bank. The question is which brands move first.
Payments are retail's next advantage
The brands that thrive in 2026 treat every transaction as a strategic opportunity, not a back-end function. Modern payment technology, from flexible financing at checkout to brand-anchored cards with rewards that adapt to behavior, has become a front-line growth driver. The customers most actively managing their own payments today are the same ones signaling, loudly, that they want it simplified. The brands that answer that signal will set the pace. The rest will keep losing customers at the exact moments that should have been wins.
Move forward with Marqeta
Marqeta is the first issuer processor in the US certified to enable Flexible Credentials, and we've already brought multiple programs to market at scale, including powering the new Klarna debit card. We build the infrastructure that lets retailers launch a single card that adapts to how their customers actually pay, with the speed to get it into their hands without reissuing.
- If your retail business is ready to give customers one card that does it all, let's design what comes next together.
Article update June 2026
