Only 39 percent of small business merchants have upgraded their point-of-sale devices to accept payments from chip-embedded credit cards. As we shared last August, if a merchant didn’t upgrade their payment devices to process chip credit cards by October 1, 2015, the merchant would be liable for most fraudulent point-of-sale (POS) card transactions. (Previously, the card issuer was typically liable.) As part of their ongoing research into small business technology adoption, Pymnts.com and Sage explored the reluctance of small merchants to upgrade their POS systems. Here is part of what they discovered. (Download full report at Pymnts.com.)

Methods of payments accepted by small businesses

(Percentage of respondents whose business accepts types of payment, either face-to-face or electronically.)

98% | Checks
67% | Cash
64% | Credit / Debit Cards
53% | ACH / Direct Debit
36% | Wire Transfer
13% | Pay Pal
1% | Apple Pay
1% | Android Pay

How small businesses rate themselves for their use of technology to pay others

8% | Ten (Best)
11% | Nine
14% | Eight
13% | Seven
10% | Six
16% | Five
9% | Four
7% | Three
7% | Two
5% | One (Worst)

Merchants that can accept chip cards

(Percentage of merchants who’ve upgraded their point-of-sale equipment in order to accept EMV “chip” cards)

39% | Can process chip credit cars
36% | Cannot process chip credit card
19% | Doesn’t if their POS system has the capability
5% | No answer

Reasons merchants upgraded to accept chip card payments

(Percentage of merchants)

38% | Security
36% | It was required
7% | Included with upgrade
4% | Ease of use
5% | Other

Illustration: ThinkStock