Adyen Ties Loyalty to Payments as In-Person Volume Climbs 28%

Adyen’s first-half results were driven heavily by merchants already on its platform sending it more payment volume, with in-person transactions growing faster than the company’s overall volume.

At the same time, merchants are paying closer attention to loyalty as commerce moves across channels and artificial intelligence threatens to put more distance between retailers and their customers.

Earnings materials and commentary from Thursday’s (Aug. 13) conference call indicated that processed volume increased 24% year over year to €803.8 billion, while in-person volume rose 28% to €175.7 billion.

The growth is happening as merchants confront a separate issue: keeping customers loyal when shopping no longer happens in one place and may soon start with an AI agent.

“What is top of mind for them is, ‘How do I make sure that in an age of AI, I do not see a disintermediation?’” Adyen Co-Founder and Co-CEO Pieter van der Does said during the analyst Q&A. “Loyalty is top of mind for them.”

The company ended the half with 838,000 transacting terminals, up 27% from a year earlier. In-person payments accounted for 22% of total processed volume, compared with 21% in the first half of 2025. Unified Commerce volume, which covers merchants processing across online and physical channels, rose 27% to €240.9 billion. Adyen said global retailers gave it more of their payments business, while food and beverage was another source of growth.

Adyen is moving into loyalty as those channels converge. It acquired Talon.One, whose technology runs promotions and loyalty programs for more than 300 global brands.

Shares were up 16% in Thursday’s trading.

Existing Merchants Supply Most of the Growth

Roughly two-thirds of first-half growth came from customers onboarded in 2024 or earlier. The remainder came from merchants signed in 2025, new customer wins and financial products.

That pattern has developed over long customer relationships. Adyen said in its letter that its typical share of a merchant’s payments is below 20% during years three through seven and rises above 40% after a decade. Growth is also somewhat less dependent on its biggest customers than it once was: 300 merchants now account for about 60% of total growth, down from more than 70% three years ago.

Asked during the call what the company was seeing from consumers, van der Does said Adyen’s own expansion obscures the picture.

Interim CFO Hwa Tsao said first-half net revenue increased 19% to €1.3 billion, or 21% at constant currency. Adyen expects constant-currency net revenue growth of 21% to 23% for 2026, including its acquisitions of Talon.One and billing technology provider Orb. Together, the two acquisitions are expected to add about one percentage point to this year’s growth.

Management discussed the possibility that merchants will eventually have to accommodate several AI shopping protocols while keeping their existing checkout, inventory and fulfillment systems working behind them. Adyen Agentic is being built for that environment.

That concern also explains why Adyen isn’t following some payments companies into a branded consumer wallet. Asked about that possibility, van der Does said the company intends to stay on the merchant side.

“Large merchants typically consider their shoppers their domain,” he said. “We don’t want to intervene with that.”