How do people in Portugal pay online?
Fewer Portuguese shop online than the EU average, but the share is growing. Eurostat puts the share of people who bought something online in the previous 12 months at 60.5% in 2025, against an EU average of 73.56%. SIBS Analytics found that e-commerce made up 18% of purchases by number and 21% by value between 1 and 24 December 2025, with the number of online purchases up 19% on the year.
Wallets matter more than in most of the euro area. In the ECB’s SPACE 2024 study, cards made up 36% of online payments in Portugal by number and e-payment solutions 33%, one of the three highest wallet shares in the euro area after the Netherlands and Germany. Instant payments took 10%, credit transfers 7% and direct debits 5%.
MB WAY is the local wallet. It is run by SIBS, which also runs the Multibanco network, and had more than 6.5 million users when it turned ten in October 2025. To pay online, the shopper enters the phone number linked to MB WAY, gets a notification and approves the payment in the app within four minutes. MB WAY also creates MB NET virtual cards for online purchases and handles subscriptions through MB WAY Pagamentos Autorizados, where the shopper confirms a recurring payment and sets a monthly limit in the app. Over Christmas 2025 one in five purchases was made with MB WAY, and its e-commerce transactions grew 36% in number on the year.
Multibanco references let shoppers pay later. At checkout the shopper receives an entity number, a reference and the amount, then pays through home banking or at a Multibanco ATM. The network has around 13,000 ATMs and handled more than 693 million transactions in 2024, most of them operations other than withdrawals, such as bill and state payments. Because the shopper pays outside the checkout, confirmation can take several days.
What rules shape online payments in Portugal?
Shoppers have 14 days to withdraw. Under EU consumer rules, a consumer who buys online can cancel within 14 days without giving a reason, counted from delivery for goods. Under Directive (EU) 2023/2673, online shops must also offer an online withdrawal function from 19 June 2026.
Card surcharges are banned. EU rules do not allow merchants to charge customers extra for paying with a consumer credit or debit card. Strong customer authentication applies: Your Europe notes that online payments above EUR 30 need at least two authentication elements.
Instant payments are now standard. Under the EU Instant Payments Regulation, banks in the euro area must let their customers send instant euro transfers and offer verification of payee since 9 October 2025.
VAT depends on the region. The standard rate is 23% on the mainland, 22% in Madeira and 16% in the Azores, with reduced and super-reduced rates in each. A seller established in another EU country whose cross-border sales to consumers across the EU pass EUR 10,000 a year charges Portuguese VAT on sales to Portuguese customers, and can declare it through the One Stop Shop.
How would Omno route payments in Portugal?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, amount and customer group. In Portugal:
- MB WAY pay-ins would go to a provider that supports MB WAY, with the hosted checkout collecting the phone number and the order pending until the shopper approves in the app.
- Multibanco references would be issued through a provider that supports them, with the order held until the provider’s notification confirms payment, which can take days.
- 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.
- Amount rules could send large baskets to cards or Multibanco, since MB WAY users have a default daily limit of EUR 1,000 that they can raise in the app.
Webhooks would report the final status of every payment, the record a back office should trust before shipping an order, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for MB WAY next to cards. A third of online payments in Portugal go through wallets, and MB WAY is the one Portuguese shoppers know.
Plan for pending orders. MB WAY needs approval in the app within minutes, and Multibanco payments can arrive days later, so orders need a pending state and notification-driven confirmation.
Plan for regional VAT. Mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores have different rates, so charge by delivery address.
Plan for the withdrawal function. Add the online withdrawal button required from 19 June 2026 and keep refunds on the original method.