How do people in Montenegro pay online?
Online shopping has taken off since 2023. Eurostat puts the share of people who bought something online in the previous 12 months at 44.54% in 2025, up from 28.74% in 2023 and 34.68% in 2024. The statistics office MONSTAT found that 31.5% of people aged 16 to 74 had bought online in the previous three months, while 37.6% had never done so. Clothes and sports goods were bought by 82.2% of recent online shoppers, followed by food and drink deliveries at 52.1%.
Cards are the main prepaid method. Montenegro uses the euro, so cards issued by Montenegrin banks are charged in the same currency as most European shops. The World Bank’s Global Findex puts account ownership at 75.4% of adults in 2024.
Cash on delivery remains common. The US International Trade Administration notes a strong reliance on cash-on-delivery payments, which it says slows the move to fully digital transactions, and estimates online sales at about 6.4% of retail. It adds that PayPal has been available since 2014 but its use remains limited to domestic transactions. A cash payment to the courier sits outside online payment routing.
Phone wallets are available. Apple Pay and Google Pay both appear on Apple’s and Google’s own country lists, and Apple names Addiko Bank, Adriatic Bank, Crnogorska Komercijalna Banka (CKB), Erste, Hipotekarna Bank, Lovćen Banka, NLB and Universal Capital Bank as Montenegrin issuers.
What rules shape online payments in Montenegro?
VAT is 21%. Reduced rates of 15% apply to items such as books and some hospitality services, and 7% to items such as bread, milk, medicines and public transport.
Euro transfers now run on SEPA rails. Montenegrin banks were scheduled to go live with SEPA operations on 6 October 2025, and six months after joining the Central Bank of Montenegro reported more than EUR 1.6 billion in transactions. The cost of an electronic payment for citizens fell from EUR 53.3 by SWIFT to EUR 2.07 by SEPA. In March 2026 the central bank signed a licence agreement to develop and manage a domestic instant payment scheme, with no launch date announced.
The legal base for online sales includes the E-Commerce Law of 2004, the Electronic Document Law of 2008 and the Electronic Signature Law of 2005. In February 2025 the government adopted a legal framework for crypto assets that requires crypto service providers to register.
How would Omno route payments in Montenegro?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, amount and customer group. In Montenegro:
- 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, 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. Many shoppers still expect it, so decide whether to offer it and how to steer them towards a card or wallet.
Plan for euro pricing. Montenegro uses the euro, so a euro-zone shop can sell without conversion at the issuer.
Plan for growth from a small base. The share of online shoppers rose by about ten points in a year, and first-time buyers may need a simple, familiar checkout.
Plan for VAT. Check which of the 21%, 15% and 7% rates applies to your products.