The rapid growth of online commerce is increasing pressure on payment providers and merchants to strengthen transaction security, with network tokenisation emerging as a key tool in the global fight against digital payment fraud.
Revenue generated by e-commerce network tokenisation is expected to surpass $7 billion in 2027, rising 37.7 percent from $5.1 billion in 2026, as payment providers increasingly adopt token-based credentials to secure card-not-present transactions, according to a new study by Juniper Research.
The development comes as Nigeria’s e-commerce market continues to expand, driven by the growing use of digital platforms for retail purchases, food delivery and other consumer services.
Analysis by Mordor Intelligence projects Nigeria’s e-commerce market to grow from $9.35 billion in 2025 to $10.49 billion in 2026 and reach $18.68 billion by 2031, representing a compound annual growth rate of 12.23 percent between 2026 and 2031.
The expansion means a growing volume of transactions are being conducted without physical cards being presented, increasing the importance of technologies that can protect payment credentials and reduce exposure to fraud.
Juniper Research, in its Network Tokenisation Market 2026-2031 report, identified the growing adoption of network tokenisation as a major development in the global payments ecosystem.
Network tokenisation replaces a customer’s primary card number with a unique digital token when a payment is made, reducing the need for merchants and payment platforms to handle the underlying card credentials during online transactions.
The research found that the growth of e-commerce network tokenisation will be supported by increasing adoption of Click to Pay, a one-click card checkout standard that can pass network tokens rather than primary account numbers during transactions.
Juniper said Click to Pay adoption is accelerating as payment issuers increasingly roll out the service automatically to customers, citing Revolut’s automatic enrolment of UK-issued cards into Click to Pay as an example.
The wider availability of the checkout system is expected to increase consumer familiarity while encouraging more merchants and payment providers to support token-based transactions.
Thomas Wilson, senior analyst at Juniper Research, said the increasing dominance of network tokenisation would require payment service providers to move beyond basic tokenisation and develop more sophisticated services, particularly around token lifecycle management.
He said stronger management of tokens across different channels and devices would be important for merchants seeking to realise the full potential of the technology.
For Nigeria’s growing online commerce ecosystem, the development highlights the importance of payment security as more consumers use cards and other digital payment methods to purchase goods and services remotely.
However, the Juniper report’s findings extend beyond conventional e-commerce, with the research identifying agentic commerce as a potential next major opportunity for network tokenisation.
Agentic commerce refers to transactions in which artificial intelligence tools can act on behalf of consumers to search for products, make purchasing decisions and complete payments with limited direct intervention from the user.
Juniper said network tokenisation could provide the payment credentials required for AI tools to make autonomous transactions, although the market remains at an early stage.
The research urged network tokenisation vendors to establish partnerships and participate in pilot programmes to secure positions within the emerging agentic commerce ecosystem.
Juniper also warned that the network tokenisation market is becoming increasingly competitive and saturated, creating a risk of consolidation among vendors that fail to capture emerging opportunities.
The research said network tokenisation would remain important as digital payments increasingly replace traditional payment methods, particularly because of its role in improving security and efficiency across the card-not-present ecosystem.
For Nigeria, where e-commerce adoption is expanding alongside the broader digital payments ecosystem, the growing global focus on tokenisation points to an increasing need for payment providers and merchants to strengthen the security infrastructure supporting online transactions.
