The news: Early Warning Services reported strong small business engagement across Zelle and Zelle tag for the first half of 2026, per a press release.

• Small business enrollment in Zelle tag topped 1 million.
• SMBs with a Zelle tag received approximately $5.8 billion across all enrolled payment credentials.
• And SMBs sent or received more than $200 billion through June 2026.

How we got here: Zelle has pushed into new use cases beyond P2P.

• Zelle launched remittance services to India, with more markets on the way.
• It debuted Zelle tags last August to help SMBs identify their businesses with a custom handle instead of using the business owners’ personal information.

Why this matters: Zelle tag’s growth helps EWS capture more SMB payment share as competitors like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App try to draw similar transactions. 

SMB payments could also help push up Zelle’s TPV growth: Zelle reported small business payments and transactions rose 23.5% YoY and 26% YoY, respectively, in 2025. 

Implications for P2P providers: As P2P providers focus on attracting younger consumers to their ecosystems, they should also reach out to SMBs and merchants frequented by those consumers to make sure acceptance of their P2P product is seamless at checkout. Engagement with merchants in college towns, where P2P providers have prioritized marketing to reach students are a good starting place.

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