In Sweden, customers rarely pay with cash. Only about 10% of Swedes used cash for their last in-store payments, while Swish, the mobile payment system, is used by about 8.7 million people out of a population of roughly 10.6 million. In this environment, businesses need to be able to accept preferred payment methods, and they need digital infrastructure that can manage real-time confirmation, local payout preferences, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), and multimethod routing.

Below, we’ll discuss what flexible payment solutions for businesses (or betallösningar för företag) look like in Sweden and how they handle conversion, cash flow, and compliance.

What’s in this article?

• What are flexible payment solutions for Swedish businesses?
  
• How do flexible payment solutions benefit businesses?
  
• Which payment solutions work best for ecommerce and retail?
  
• Which payment solutions work best for platforms and marketplaces?
  
• What security and regulatory requirements apply to payment solutions?
  
• How Stripe Payments can help
  

What are flexible payment solutions for Swedish businesses?

In Sweden, payments are generally digital, fast, and mobile. To keep up, businesses need modern payment systems that offer customers a range of payment options.

Businesses that want to serve Swedish customers should offer the following:

• More than just cards: Debit and credit cards, digital wallets, and buy now, pay later (BNPL) options reach different kinds of customers. Swish is also very common. A single integration with a payment provider should cover them all.

• A consistent experience across channels: Whether someone’s checking out on a phone, tapping a card in a store, or paying an invoice via link, the experience should feel the same. Your payment system should support online checkout, point-of-sale (POS) transactions, QR code payments, and invoicing, with unified reporting and settlement.

• Adaptability: Sweden has been quick to adopt new payment technologies such as digital ID, biometric authentication, and mobile-first design. Avoid a rigid setup that might become obsolete quickly.

How do flexible payment solutions benefit businesses?

Every step of the payment flow affects how often customers convert, how quickly money moves, how efficiently teams operate, and how easily a business can grow.

Here are the advantages of incorporating a modern payment solution:

• Better conversion: When customers have the chance to pay with Swish, digital wallets, or installments, they often do. Stripe data shows that offering at least 1 additional relevant payment method increases checkout conversion by 7.4% and revenue by 12.0% on average.

• Simpler operations: With unified infrastructure, online and offline sales flow into one system with the same backend and reporting logic. Refunds, reconciliation, and payouts are easier to track.

• Built-in compliance: SCA, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements shape how payments work in Sweden. A good payment solution can integrate 3D Secure and BankID, a digital identity system used in Sweden, and tokenize sensitive data so no extra engineering is required.

• Scalability: A flexible setup adapts by adding new methods, currencies, and billing models as the business develops.

Which payment solutions work best for ecommerce and retail?

What works for a physical shop doesn’t always work for a mobile checkout. But both must meet the same high expectation: the payment experience should be familiar and fast.

Here’s what each business type should look for.

Ecommerce businesses

Online shoppers in Sweden should be able to enjoy a mix of speed, choice, and familiarity.

Effective checkouts do three things well:

• Support local preferences: Debit card payments are the most common method. Swish is close behind. BNPL and invoices are also widely used. Sweden has the world’s highest share of BNPL payments in ecommerce.

• Make mobile easy: Shopping increasingly happens on phones so ensure you support digital wallets like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

• Present BNPL options responsibly: Swedish regulation prohibits preselecting credit-based options at checkout. If you offer “Pay in 30 days” or installments and a noncredit payment option is available, BNPL needs to be an option, not the default.

Retail businesses

In-store, contactless payments are also a popular choice, with one in four shoppers having access to mobile payment methods besides Swish, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. More than 345,000 businesses in Sweden also accept Swish, often via QR code. Small business payment solutions, or småföretag betallösningar, commonly include Swish—especially those used by smaller shops, food trucks, and service-based retail, where the cost of traditional POS hardware might not make sense.

Retailers need POS systems that:

• Accept contactless card and digital wallet payments via near-field communication

• Offer Swish as a payment method, especially for small-format or mobile-first retail

• Sync with their online systems to unify payments, reporting, and inventory

Which payment solutions work best for platforms and marketplaces?

Platforms and marketplaces need payments infrastructure that can manage seller onboarding, track multiparty flows, and automate payouts, all across hundreds or thousands of sellers that operate under a single brand.

Here’s what to look for in a payment system.

Support for local payment methods

Cards, digital wallets, Swish, and BNPL are commonly used in Sweden. Platforms and marketplaces should offer these options and allow customers to choose their preferred methods.

Seller onboarding and identity verification

To pay businesses or vendors, platforms first need to verify them. In Sweden, that means collecting and validating personal identity numbers or company registration info, along with bank details. Manual onboarding doesn’t scale so platforms need to work with providers that can collect, screen, and approve sellers automatically.

Payout infrastructure and transparency

Customers pay the platform, but the platform needs to route funds downstream—sometimes instantly, sometimes in scheduled payouts. The payment system needs to control when and how payouts happen, and show real-time earnings, fees, and transfers to each seller without adding operational overhead.

What security and regulatory requirements apply to payment solutions?

Businesses that work with payments in Sweden have to align with a regulatory framework shaped by EU laws and local enforcement.

Here’s what that entails:

• SCA: This is required under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) for electronic payments, and it can be enforced using 3D Secure or BankID. If the flow doesn’t meet SCA standards, the transaction won’t go through.

• PCI DSS: This outlines how card information must be handled. Payment systems manage this through techniques such as encryption and tokenization so sensitive data never touches the business’s own systems.

• GDPR: This governs how personal data, such as email addresses, names, and card details, is collected, stored, and shared. Businesses must explain what they collect and why and ensure it’s protected.

• Know Your Customer (KYC): This requires payment providers to verify the identities of individuals or businesses that receive funds, usually with government-issued ID or corporate registration details.

• Anti-Money Laundering (AML): This requires payment providers to monitor transactions and report suspicious activity.

A payments service company, or betaltjänster företag, might also need to be authorized under Sweden’s Payment Services Act or partner with a regulated provider that’s already authorized by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen).

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payment solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimize your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs, access to 125+ payment methods, and Link, a wallet built by Stripe.

• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.

• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalize interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.

• Improve payment performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorization rates.

• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.