Reviewed by Mayer Hyman, Payments Specialist | Reviewed for accuracy July 2026
Key Takeaways
- 82% of U.S. farms now use a smartphone or tablet, up from 77% in 2021, and three-quarters access the internet through a cellular data plan (USDA/Telecompetitor, 2023).
- The global embedded finance market is projected to reach roughly $148 billion in 2025, with credit and lending products (the category that covers farm equipment financing) the largest single segment (Precedence Research, 2025).
- Embedded finance in agriculture specifically was valued at $4.1 billion in 2024 and is forecast to grow to $18.6 billion by 2033 (Market Intelo, 2025).
- Rural retailers serving farmers increasingly compete on mobile checkout, branded financing, and loyalty programs, not just product selection.
Why Agricultural Retailers Can’t Ignore Mobile Payments
82% of U.S. farms now use a smartphone or tablet as their primary computing device, up from 77% just two years earlier, and three-quarters access the internet through a cellular data plan rather than fixed broadband (USDA/Telecompetitor, 2023). Farmers spend most of their working hours away from a desk, on equipment, in the field, or moving between the barn and the bank, so mobile isn’t a secondary channel for them, it’s the main one.
That shift changes what agricultural retailers need to support at checkout. A farmer researching a part number, comparing dealer prices, or reordering feed is doing it from a phone, often standing in a field or a truck cab. If the buying experience doesn’t work well on that device, from browsing through payment, the sale slips to a competitor whose site or app does.
Mobile Isn’t Just for Browsing Anymore
The apps farmers rely on day to day, weather tools, market price trackers, herd and yield management software, have normalized doing serious business from a phone. Ordering supplies, financing equipment, and paying invoices through the same device is a natural extension, not a leap. Retailers that treat mobile checkout as an afterthought are asking customers to break that habit right at the point of purchase.
How Embedded Finance Changes the Equipment and Supply Buying Process
Embedded finance, financing and payment options built directly into a retailer’s checkout rather than routed through a separate bank application, is changing equipment and supply buying by letting farmers finance high-upfront-cost purchases at the point of sale instead of applying separately. The global embedded finance market is projected to reach approximately $148 billion in 2025, and credit and lending products make up the largest share of that market, the category that includes equipment financing and buy-now-pay-later style offers (Precedence Research, 2025), a shift that matters because farm equipment and inputs carry high upfront costs relative to a farm’s seasonal cash flow.
Agriculture-specific embedded finance is a smaller but faster-growing slice: valued at $4.1 billion in 2024, with projected growth to $18.6 billion by 2033 as more ag retailers and equipment dealers build financing directly into their sales process instead of referring customers to a third-party lender (Market Intelo, 2025).
What This Looks Like for a Farm Retailer
In practice, embedded finance means a customer can apply for financing, use a branded card, or split a payment at the same point they’re already buying, whether that’s a dealer’s e-commerce checkout, an in-store terminal, or a mobile app. The retailer isn’t a lender; it’s offering a financing option sourced through a partner and presented inside its own buying flow. That keeps the transaction, the financing decision, and the receipt in one place instead of sending the customer somewhere else mid-purchase.
This matters more in agriculture than in most retail categories because of how uneven farm income is across the year. A crop or livestock operation might see most of its revenue land in a narrow harvest or sale window, while equipment and input purchases, seed, fertilizer, parts, machinery, often need to happen well before that revenue arrives. A financing option available at the exact point of purchase, sized to what the farm can absorb that season, fits that cash-flow pattern better than a generic loan product designed around monthly paychecks.
The Loyalty and Data Layer Retailers Are Missing
Payment and financing data is also customer data. When a rewards card, mobile wallet, or financed purchase runs through a retailer’s own checkout instead of a third-party processor with no relationship to the retailer, that retailer gains visibility into purchase timing, product mix, and repeat-order patterns. That visibility is what supports better-targeted promotions, smarter inventory planning ahead of planting or harvest season, and loyalty programs that actually reflect how a farm customer buys rather than a generic retail calendar.
None of that requires a farmer to change habits. It requires the retailer’s checkout, whether on a countertop terminal or a phone screen, to capture the transaction cleanly the first time. A payment that fails, times out on a weak cellular connection, or routes through a clunky third-party financing portal doesn’t just lose the sale; it loses the data that would have made the next sale easier to close.
What Agricultural Retailers Should Prioritize
- Make sure checkout, whether web, app, or in-store terminal, works well on a phone with an intermittent cellular connection, since that’s how most farm customers are online.
- Offer flexible payment options at the point of sale rather than routing customers to a separate financing application.
- Support mobile wallets and card-on-file options so repeat orders (feed, parts, consumables) don’t require re-entering payment details every time.
- Confirm that fraud protection and chargeback handling are built into the payment flow itself, not bolted on separately, since equipment and bulk input purchases tend to run at higher transaction values.
- Evaluate any payments or financing partner on whether they support the seasonal cash-flow patterns specific to agricultural buying, not a generic retail model.
Where a Payments Partner Fits In
Cartis Payments works with merchants and ISVs to build payment processing, gateway infrastructure, chargeback management, and fraud protection into a single integration rather than stitching together separate vendors. For a retailer serving farmers and rural customers, that matters most at the moments where transaction size is high and connectivity may not be, equipment purchases, bulk input orders, and financed transactions where a failed or delayed payment costs a sale.
FAQ
Are farmers actually using mobile devices to make purchases, or mostly for research?
Both. USDA data shows 82% of U.S. farms use a smartphone or tablet, and farmers increasingly use those devices for actual purchasing, not just browsing, including ordering supplies and equipment financing through mobile-friendly checkouts.
What is embedded finance, and how is it different from a regular loan?
Embedded finance means financing or payment options are built directly into a retailer’s checkout process instead of requiring a customer to apply separately through a bank or lender. The retailer isn’t the lender; it’s presenting a financing option, often through a partner, inside its own buying flow.
Why does connectivity matter for agricultural retail checkout?
Three-quarters of U.S. farms rely on cellular data rather than fixed broadband. A checkout process that assumes a strong, constant connection can fail or frustrate customers who are buying from a field or truck cab rather than a desk.
What should an agricultural retailer look for in a payments partner?
Look for processing, fraud protection, and chargeback management handled through the same integration rather than separate systems, plus support for mobile checkout and flexible payment options suited to seasonal buying patterns. Contact Cartis to talk through a payments setup for agricultural or rural retail.
