Adding new payment options to your business’s checkout flow is something that can be easy to put off or overlook. Once you’re set up to accept credit and debit cards, it can feel like the important part is done. But device habits, regional norms, and changing expectations all impact how customers pay, and businesses need to keep up. Adding new payment methods means meeting customer demand, closing conversion gaps, and future-proofing your business against changes that are already in motion.

Below, we’ll explain when, why, and how to add payment methods—particularly in a way that makes a difference.

What’s in this article?

• When should you consider adding new payment methods?
  
• Why should businesses accept multiple payment methods?
  
• What types of payment methods should you consider?
  
• How do you add new payment methods to your checkout flow?
  

When should you consider adding new payment methods?

There’s no fixed schedule for when to expand your payment options. But certain shifts in your business can be strong signals that it’s time to reassess how customers can pay you.

Here’s what to watch for.

You’re entering new markets or reaching new demographics

Payment preferences vary dramatically by region and culture. What feels standard in one country might be nearly useless in another. In China, Alipay and WeChat Pay are the norm. In the Netherlands, iDEAL dominates. In Brazil, Pix is a popular option.

If your business’s checkout process only accepts major cards, you might be functionally invisible to large segments of global customers, even if they’re visiting your site.

Customers are asking for other payment options—or leaving

Sometimes, the most valuable payment insight comes from support tickets and drop-off data:

• Are users asking for bank transfers, digital wallets, or buy, now pay later (BNPL) options?
  
• Are customers abandoning carts right at the payment step?
  
• Are you seeing a high rate of failed or abandoned checkouts among mobile users?
  

Sometimes, customers will simply tell you what they want. Other times, it becomes clear based on lost sales.

Mobile usage is growing and your payments haven’t kept up

Mobile now drives a substantial portion of ecommerce traffic, but traditional card entry remains clunky on small screens. If your data shows rising mobile traffic or high mobile drop-off rates, it’s worth looking at mobile-native methods.

Apple Pay and Google Pay offer one-touch payments with biometric authentication. Stored wallets reduce the need to type card numbers on a mobile screen. And some wallets mask card data entirely, which adds a layer of protection.

Digital wallets accounted for about half of global ecommerce transactions in 2024, and that growth is expected to continue.

Your business model is evolving

New revenue streams often call for new ways to get paid. Consider adding new payment methods in the following scenarios:

• If you’re launching a subscription model: Direct debits such as Automated Clearing House (ACH) or Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) can reduce churn and transaction fees.
  
• If you’re moving into enterprise sales: Customers might expect to be able to pay via wire or bank transfer.
  
• If you’re selling higher-ticket items: BNPL can expand purchasing power.
  
• If you’re rolling out an in-app marketplace: Native mobile payments are key.
  

Your competitors are moving faster than you are

If your competition offers more flexible ways to pay than you do, customers will probably notice. Whether it’s the widespread adoption of BNPL in ecommerce or the normalization of digital wallets in mobile-first checkout flows, what starts as optional often becomes expected. Delaying the rollout of a new payment method can mean missing the window in which early adopters benefit most.

You’re seeing early signs in the data

Sometimes, the cue to add new payment methods is subtle. It might be:

• A spike in international site traffic
  
• Lower conversion from a specific region or device
  
• Repeated manual work to process payments, such as sending invoices or managing wire transfers
  

These can be operational clues that your payments strategy is lagging behind how your customers want to pay.

Why should businesses accept multiple payment methods?

When a customer sees their preferred payment method at checkout, it signals that your business understands them, values their time, and knows how to operate at scale.

Here’s how adding new payment methods can play out in practice.

Conversion rates

Payment flexibility can directly affect your sales. Stripe research found that dynamically offering just one relevant additional payment method beyond cards increases conversion by an average of 7.4%. In the same analysis, businesses that expanded their payment options saw an average revenue boost of 12%.

Cart abandonment

Adding the right payment method can mean the difference between a completed checkout and a lost sale. A 2025 survey found that 10% of US shoppers have abandoned a purchase solely because not enough payment methods were offered.

Global reach

As previously stated, payment expectations shift dramatically by region. A checkout that works in the US might be useless elsewhere. In Belgium, for instance, Bancontact is widely used, while in India, UPI is everywhere.

If you don’t support the right local methods, you’re limiting your reach, no matter how good your product is.

Customer lifetime value (LTV)

Ease of payment also impacts whether or not customers return. If a business has a BNPL option that offers installment plans that work with a customer’s budget, that customer might spend more, more often. If recurring billing is easy to use—via direct debit, for instance—churn might go down and LTV might go up. A good payment experience can improve customer loyalty.

Costs and fraud risk

Different payment methods come with different fee structures and fraud profiles.

• Bank transfers and direct debits typically have lower processing fees than cards.
  
• Bank-authenticated payments—where the customer logs into their bank to authorize the charge—have an added layer of security that can lower fraud and chargeback rates.
  
• Digital wallets often include built-in authentication, such as Face ID or passcodes, which makes it harder for fraudulent actors to use stolen credentials.
  

What types of payment methods should you consider?

The right payment mix depends on your customers, your geography, and your business model. Here’s a closer look at the payments landscape and what each method can do for your business.

How to choose what’s right for you

You don’t need to offer every payment method, but you do need to find the right mix. Focus on coverage, not volume. Ask:

• What do my customers prefer?
  
• Are there regional standards I need to meet?
  
• Where am I seeing less conversion today?
  
• Which methods are compatible with my business model?
  

For a US ecommerce store, the answer might be cards, digital wallets, and a BNPL provider. A European software company might need cards, digital wallets, Bancontact, BLIK, and iDEAL. A global business-to-business (B2B) company might prioritize wire transfers and bank transfers.

Credit and debit cards

Credit and debit cards are universally understood, instantly authorized, and come with strong customer protections. But they can also come with higher processing fees and higher fraud and chargeback rates compared to other methods. You can’t skip them—but offering these payment options alone is not enough.

Digital wallets and one-tap payments

Digital wallets provide a faster, easier mobile checkout and have extra safeguards due to their use of biometric authentication. The familiarity of this payment option is another draw, especially for first-time customers. Wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and others let customers check out without re-entering card info, often using biometrics or saved credentials.

If you see high mobile traffic, this could be your biggest untapped lever for conversion.

Bank payments

Bank payments let customers pay directly from their bank accounts, either via debit authorization or real-time authentication. If you serve a global audience or sell higher-value services, you’ll likely want to incorporate bank-based payments.

Direct debits

Direct debits—such as ACH, SEPA, or Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS)—are common for subscriptions and come with low costs and low fraud risk. Funds typically take a few days to settle. Direct debits work best when you need recurring payments.

Real-time transfers

Real-time transfers (e.g., iDEAL, UPI, BLIK) allow customers to approve payments via their own banking apps or third-party apps linked to their bank accounts. These payments are confirmed quickly and processed immediately.

Wire transfers

Wire transfers are typically used for large, one-off B2B transactions. They’re manual and slow, which isn’t ideal for online checkout flows, but they can still be useful behind the scenes for international or enterprise sales.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL)

BNPL options can boost average order value and increase conversion—especially for higher-priced items. With these methods, the customer pays in installments: you get paid upfront, and the BNPL provider takes on the repayment risk. Fees are usually higher than with card processing, and some regulatory disclosures might be required depending on the region.

If you’re in ecommerce—especially fashion, electronics, or travel—BNPL could be beneficial.

Cash-based digital payments

Cash-based online payment methods include OXXO, which is used in Mexico, and Boleto Bancário, which is used in Brazil. These options are useful when you operate in a cash-heavy economy or you’re targeting customers who don’t use cards or bank accounts. They’re slower to confirm, but they unlock demand that would otherwise be unreachable.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency can appeal to a specific audience—especially in fintech or digital goods—and it allows for fast, irreversible transactions. But it comes with additional volatility and complexity, unless your provider automatically converts it to fiat currency. Crypto is a niche use case, for now, but it’s worth considering if it would appeal to your audience.

How do you add new payment methods to your checkout flow?

Adding a new payment method can be as simple as flipping a switch or as involved as writing new frontend code and mapping out fraud flows. It depends on your infrastructure, your payments provider, and how custom your checkout process is.

Here’s how to approach it.

Start with your existing setup

Audit what your current payments provider already supports. Some platforms, such as Stripe, let you toggle on additional methods directly in your dashboard. Others might require plugins, modules, or even signing up for a second provider.

Check:

• What is natively supported by your provider
  
• If there are new payment methods you can enable without changing your architecture
  
• If you’re already paying for functionality you’re not using
  

If you’re working across multiple platforms, weigh the cost of fragmentation, both in customer experience and back-office operations.

Design the checkout user experience (UX) around it

Turning on a new payment method is only part of the job. You also need to present it in context. If you’re using a hosted checkout page such as Stripe Checkout, this is usually handled automatically. But if you’ve built your own flow, consider:

• Where the new method shows up on your site
  
• Whether you need a separate button
  
• What information you need to collect (e.g., bank details)
  
• How the interaction occurs (e.g., modal, redirect, embedded form)
  

Make sure each method is labeled, easy to activate, and integrated into the checkout flow without feeling bolted on. If the method requires extra steps, such as authorizing a bank payment, set clear expectations so users don’t bounce mid-flow.

Handle the integration and testing

Depending on your stack, integration might mean:

• Adding a new frontend element (e.g., a BNPL widget)
  
• Updating your backend to accept a new payment method type via an application programming interface (API)
  
• Using a platform-native element, such as Stripe’s Payment Element, that dynamically renders available payment methods
  

If you’re using Stripe’s prebuilt tools, much of this is simplified—you can accept dozens of global methods through a single integration.

Run end-to-end tests for successful transactions, failures (e.g., declines, timeouts, cancelations), and edge cases. You want your checkout to handle every scenario gracefully. A failed payment shouldn’t mean a lost customer.

Stay compliant

Every new payment method comes with operational and regulatory overhead. Before going live:

• Confirm you’re meeting any regional requirements around payment security and data collection.
  
• Make sure your checkout captures proper consent—especially for direct debits and recurring payments.
  
• Understand what disclosures you need for financing options (e.g., BNPL terms).
  
• If you’re saving payment information, use tokenization. Don’t store sensitive data on your own servers.
  

Modern platforms handle a lot of this work for you. For example, Stripe automatically manages 3D Secure prompts and has PCI Level 1 certification.

Roll it out—and track the impact

Once live, soft-launch the new method. Monitor usage, performance, and conversion:

• Are customers adopting it?
  
• Is it affecting your cart completion rate?
  
• Are there support tickets tied to failed transactions or customer confusion?
  

If a method gets traction, make it more visible. If it doesn’t, demote or remove it. Update your marketing and site messaging, too. If you now accept Klarna, for instance, announce this on your homepage, in your footer, or during campaigns targeting the audience for that payment method.

Keep the experience unified

A good checkout feels cohesive, even with multiple payment options. If you’re presenting, say, five methods, make sure they all:

• Use consistent design patterns
  
• Provide real-time feedback (e.g., successes, failures, redirects)
  
• Fit your brand voice and tone
  
• Work across all devices and screen sizes
  

If your platform supports it, consider dynamic payment display. Stripe, for example, can show the most relevant payment methods based on the customer’s location, device, and currency. This means a shopper in the Netherlands sees iDEAL, while a US iPhone user sees Apple Pay. This keeps your checkout focused and helps customers pay faster with the method that makes the most sense for them.