How do people in the Philippines pay online?
E-wallets lead, and GCash dominates. In the Ecommerce Payments Momentum Report 2026 by Xendit and Cube, GCash was the dominant way to pay online in the Philippines. A missing payment method was the top reason Filipino shoppers abandoned a purchase (41%), and cross-border purchases were 9% of the market. Payment providers such as Xendit also offer Maya, GrabPay and ShopeePay.
Digital payments are now the majority. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) found that digital payments made up 64.69% of retail payment transactions in 2025, or 3.94 billion of 6.09 billion, up from 57.45% in 2024 and 10% in 2018. Merchant payments were 74.31% of all electronic payment transactions.
QR Ph is the national QR code. Its volumes rose from 174.34 million transactions in 2024 to 2.47 billion in 2025, worth PHP 1.16 trillion, with 48 participating financial institutions and 2.29 million registered merchant IDs at the end of the year. InstaPay, the instant transfer service, grew 230.92% in volume in 2025, and the BSP has added a request-to-pay e-commerce option so InstaPay can be used for online purchases next to cards and cash.
Cards and cash complete the mix. Apple Pay and Google Pay are both available in the Philippines. Shoppers without an e-wallet or card can pay a reference code in cash at outlets such as 7-Eleven, Cebuana Lhuillier, M Lhuillier and Palawan, and online banking with BDO, BPI, Metrobank, UnionBank and other banks is also offered.
What rules shape online payments in the Philippines?
Digital services carry 12% VAT. Republic Act No. 12023, approved on 2 October 2024, makes a non-resident digital service provider liable for VAT on digital services consumed in the Philippines by customers who are not VAT registered. Non-resident providers became subject to it 120 days after its implementing rules took effect. VAT-registered providers that run e-marketplaces must also withhold and remit VAT on sales through their platforms.
Online sales follow the Internet Transactions Act of 2023 (Republic Act No. 11967). It covers online merchants, e-retailers and e-marketplaces that serve the Philippine market, set up an E-Commerce Bureau in the Department of Trade and Industry, and requires e-retailers to publish their trade name, address and contact details. A consumer with defective goods can seek repair, replacement or a refund under the Consumer Act.
Personal data falls under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173), run by the National Privacy Commission. A reportable breach must be notified to the Commission and affected people within 72 hours. Organisations with 250 or more staff, or that process sensitive data of 1,000 or more people, must register their data protection officer and processing systems.
How would Omno route payments in the Philippines?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In the Philippines:
- E-wallet pay-ins would go to providers that support GCash and Maya, with the hosted checkout sending shoppers to their wallet to approve.
- QR Ph payments would go to a provider that generates dynamic QR Ph codes, with the order pending until the provider confirms the payment.
- Card pay-ins, Apple Pay and Google Pay can be routed by BIN, with cascading to the next provider in the rule if one is unavailable or rejects the request.
- Over-the-counter payments could be offered through a provider with outlet networks, with the order held until the cash payment is confirmed.
Webhooks would report the final status of every payment, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for GCash first, then Maya. A missing payment method is the top reason Filipino shoppers abandon a purchase.
Plan for QR Ph. Its volumes rose more than fourteenfold in 2025, and 48 financial institutions take part.
Plan for 12% VAT on digital services and for the Internet Transactions Act disclosure rules on your store pages.
Plan for asynchronous payments. QR and over-the-counter payments finish outside the checkout, so orders need a pending state and an expiry time.