How do people in Bosnia and Herzegovina pay online?
Online shopping is growing quickly. Eurostat puts the share of people who bought something online in the previous 12 months at 49.53% in 2025, up from 34.71% in 2023, against an EU average of 73.56%. The World Bank’s Global Findex puts account ownership at 77.5% of adults in 2024.
Cash on delivery still leads, but cards are catching up. An ecommerceGermany market overview from March 2026 puts cash on delivery at 46.4% of e-commerce payments in 2024, with card payments rising from 32.8% in 2023 to 43.1% in 2024. A cash payment to the courier sits outside online payment routing.
Most cards are debit cards. The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina counted 2,585,419 active cards at the end of 2024, 131,069 more than a year earlier, with debit cards holding 83.37% of the market. Card transactions that year totalled 186 million, worth KM 18.4 billion. Internet transactions were 4% of card transaction value, against 68% for ATMs and 28% for POS terminals, and 64% of internet card transactions were made abroad, against 36% in the country.
Phone wallets come through local banks. The US International Trade Administration notes that Google Pay and Apple Pay are both available through local banks, and Apple names Addiko Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo Banka, NLB Banka, Nova Bank, Raiffeisen Bank and UniCredit Bank among its issuers in the country.
What rules shape online payments in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
VAT is 17%, with no reduced rate. The Indirect Taxation Administration has told foreign companies that provide electronically delivered or digital services to recipients in the country that they must appoint a local tax representative, register for VAT, and report and pay VAT. A VAT rulebook in force from 29 April 2025 lists such services, including web hosting, software and updates, databases, digital content, music, films, games and online distance learning.
Consumer rules differ by entity. In April 2025 the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was preparing its first consumer protection law; the Federal Minister of Trade said it would give customers the right to cancel a purchase without giving a reason and return it within 14 days. It had not been formally adopted as of March 2025, so merchants should check the text that applies where their customers live.
Payment infrastructure is being modernised. The central bank is working with the World Bank Group on instant payments through the TIPS Clone project, and on the technical preparation of banks for joining the Single Euro Payments Area.
How would Omno route payments in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, amount and customer group. In Bosnia and Herzegovina:
- Card pay-ins would follow rules by BIN, currency and amount, with cascading: if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay would be shown in the hosted checkout through providers that support them, next to the card form.
- Prepaid options could be placed first for returning or higher-value orders, with rules by amount or customer group, so that fewer orders fall back to cash on delivery.
- Saved cards would let returning shoppers pay again without typing card details.
Webhooks would confirm each final status, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for cash on delivery. Close to half of online payments were still made this way in 2024, so decide how to offer it and how to steer shoppers towards a card.
Plan for debit cards. More than four in five cards are debit cards, so expect issuer authentication and spending limits on many payments.
Plan for VAT on digital services. A foreign seller of digital services needs a local tax representative and VAT registration.
Plan for convertible marks. Pricing and charging in BAM keeps the checkout familiar for local shoppers.