Online Payment Methods: What To Accept (2026)

Online payment methods are the ways customers pay for an order on your website. These include credit or debit cards, digital wallets, buy now, pay later (BNPL) plans, bank transfers, and cryptocurrency. Each method has its own costs and processing timeline.

The Baymard Institute found that among US shoppers who abandoned a cart for a reason other than browsing, 9% said the store didn’t offer enough payment methods. Offering more options helps keep customers from abandoning their cart because you don’t accept their preferred payment method.

This guide compares five types of online payment methods by cost, settlement speed, chargeback frequency, and best use case. It also walks through how online payments work and how to choose which methods your small business should accept.

What are online payments?

Online payments are transactions in which a customer pays for a product or service over the internet using a card, digital wallet, bank account, installment plan, or even stablecoins and other forms of cryptocurrency. Online payments are a type of electronic payment, and they can cover processes like one-time checkouts and recurring subscription charges.

Different online payment options also cost you, as the merchant, different fees and rates. 

In a card-present transaction, the customer taps, inserts, or swipes their card (or mobile device) at a payment terminal. In a card-not-present transaction, which includes online orders, the card is never physically read, so the payment has a higher fraud risk, and therefore, a higher processing rate. 

Card-not-present sales also carry more fraud liability for the store owner. If a customer disputes a fraudulent online charge, the card issuer can reverse the payment through a chargeback, and you have to absorb that loss. Chargebacks come with a fee on top of the lost sale, which is why you want to understand the different dispute rules for each payment method you accept.

Online payments also represent transactions you make with your own vendors and suppliers. Shopify Bill Pay lets eligible US stores pay their own bills from the Finance section of the Shopify admin, so your incoming sales and outgoing bills all sit in the same place.

5 types of online payment methods

The five types of online payment methods covered below include what most shoppers use at checkout. This table compares them based on the factors that impact your store. The sections below cover each type in more detail.

1. Credit and debit cards

Credit and debit cards are the base of online checkout, with 96% of US businesses accepting this payment method. Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express are the card networks most shoppers expect to see.

Federal Reserve research found consumers made an average of 16 credit card payments a month in 2025, more than debit (15) or cash (6), with cards together accounting for two-thirds of all consumer payments. Credit cards accounted for 32% of US online transaction value in 2025 and debit cards 16%.

There are fees associated with accepting cards, which depend on your plan and your processor. On the Basic plan, Shopify Payments charges 2.9% plus 30¢ for online transactions with standard cards, with that percentage dropping on higher tier plans. Stores that use a third-party processor have to pay an additional transaction fee, which starts at 2%.

Credit and debit cards also protect customers differently. 

Under Regulation Z (the Truth in Lending Act or TILA), a cardholder’s liability for unauthorized credit card charges is capped at $50. Under Regulation E (Electronic Fund Transfers or EFTS), debit card liability depends on how quickly the customer reports the problem. It is $50 if reported within two business days, up to $500 after that, and potentially even more if the customer waits more than 60 days after the statement.

Shopify Payments helps merchants identify and reduce the risk of card fraud. Its fraud analysis reviews eligible online card orders, flagging medium- and high-risk orders for review. Shopify Payments can also route higher-risk transactions through 3D Secure, which may ask customers to verify their identity with their card issuer.

2. Digital and mobile wallets 

Digital and mobile wallets let customers pay without having to type in their card details. Digital wallets accounted for 40% of US ecommerce transaction value in 2025, compared with 17% of US in-store point-of-sale value. Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and PayPal are some of the more common wallets US shoppers are already using.

Wallets work in two ways:

• Mobile wallets like Apple and Google Wallet tokenize an attached card, meaning the wallet swaps the actual card number for a one-time token. The payment runs as a normal card transaction, but without the card information ever being exposed. 
• Apps like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App can connect directly to a bank account for online transactions, but they can also hold a spendable balance so that customers pay from stored funds instead of their card or bank balance.

Shopify’s accelerated checkout options let businesses accept payments through wallets like these. Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and PayPal all appear as buttons, so a returning customer can make a purchase without filling out any payment details.

Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay processed through Shopify Payments are charged at the same rates as card transactions, while PayPal Wallet rates start at 3.49% plus 49¢.

3. Buy now, pay later

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) lets a customer split a purchase into installments at checkout. BNPL accounts for 6% of US ecommerce value and is forecast to grow at 13% annually through 2030. The Federal Reserve found that 16% of US adults used BNPL in the past 12 months, up from 10% in 2021.

BNPL can be an option to offer to increase larger orders, but BNPL provider fees tend to be higher than a standard card rate. Shop Pay Installments, Affirm, Klarna, and Afterpay are the best-known BNPL brands.

Shop Pay Installments is built into Shop Pay checkout for eligible US stores. Orders ranging from $35 to $30,000 may quality, and customers pay in either four interest-free biweekly payments on purchases from $50 to $999.99, or monthly installments on eligible orders from $150 to $30,000, which may carry interest. Gift cards and subscriptions are excluded, and additional transaction fees apply.

4. Bank transfers and ACH

Bank transfers move money directly between bank accounts without using a card network. This category includes three different bank-to-bank transfer options:

• ACH payments. The ACH network is the US system that batches and settles electronic bank-to-bank payments, and ACH transfers both push and pull funds.
• Direct debit. With ACH debit, the customer authorizes a store to pull money from their bank account, which makes it work well for recurring payments.
• Wire transfers. A wire moves funds bank to bank, often on the same day. This is more typical for larger, one-time B2B payments.

Wire transfers are effectively irreversible once sent, which makes them a common payment method used in scams. The 2026 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey found that 49% of fraud via email in 2025 were made using wire transfer. If you send or accept wire transfers, always confirm the account details by phone beforehand.

Eligible US stores using Shopify Payments can accept ACH Direct Debit at checkout on B2B orders from customers with a US bank account. Dwolla and GoCardless are two other providers that handle bank debits.

5. Cryptocurrency and stablecoins

Cryptocurrency is a niche payment option that may make sense if a customer specifically requests it. The Federal Reserve found that crypto payment use has remained at 1% to 2% of US adults each year since 2021. BitPay and Coinbase are two well-known apps for making cryptocurrency payments.

Stablecoins are another option that may be even more practical for a store to accept because their value is tied to the US dollar instead of moving with the crypto market. Eligible US merchants using Shopify Payments can accept USDC at checkout, at 2.9% plus 30¢ per transaction on the Basic plan.

How do online payments work?

An online payment works by passing a customer’s payment details through a chain of systems that check the payment, approve it, and move the money from the customer’s bank account to yours. This sequence shows exactly how an online payment works from checkout to payout:

1. The customer submits payment details. They enter a card number or choose a wallet at checkout, and the details are encrypted.
2. The payment gateway sends the request. The payment gateway is the software that carries the details from your store to the payment processor.
3. The processor routes it to the card network. The network, maybe Visa or Mastercard, forwards the request to the customer’s issuing bank.
4. The issuing bank approves or declines the payment. The bank checks for available funds or credit and runs its own fraud checks before sending back a response.
5. The response returns to checkout. The customer sees a confirmation, and the funds are held as an authorization.
6. The payment is captured and settled. The processor captures the funds, and they’re deposited into your bank account on your payout schedule.

Shopify Payments is Shopify’s built-in payment processor, so the gateway, processor, and payout schedule are all managed within the Shopify admin. You can choose whether your payouts arrive daily, weekly, or monthly, and banks take one to three business days to process the deposit.

What to consider when choosing online payment options for your small business

Choose the online payment methods your small business offers by weighing three core criteria: how high your cost per transaction is, how quickly payments settle in your bank account, and the payment methods your customers already use. 

Consumers 55 and older made about 10 cash payments a month in 2025, against two for those under 25, but cards dominate for every age group. At least 19% of online shoppers in the US have abandoned their cart because they didn’t trust the site with their credit card information.

Match how your specific shoppers want to pay. Customer preference matters, and helping customers feel secure in their purchase should be high on your priority list.

If you’re trying to decide what to offer first (and when to add more options), here’s a quick-reference guide:

• Card and accelerated checkout wallets. Shopify Payments is the starting point for enabling credit cards, debit cards, Shop Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay in one setup.
• BNPL. Add this when your average order value is high enough that shoppers might hesitate at the lump sum.
• ACH. Add this for B2B orders and larger purchases where the card fee starts to cause buyers to think twice.
• Wires. Add these only for large orders when the customer requests one, and always confirm the details before shipping.
• Crypto and stablecoins. Add this option only if a customer has requested it, because most stores won’t see steady demand for this payment method.

Consider merchant liability when choosing your payment methods as well. With cards, you could potentially lose the sale and pay a fee on a fraudulent chargeback. However, 3D Secure and Shopify Protect can reduce that risk. ACH debits can be returned by the customer’s bank, while wire payments can’t be reversed, meaning risk switches from disputes to fraud checks before you finalize a purchase.