How do people in Sweden pay online?
Almost everyone in Sweden shops online. Eurostat puts the share of people who bought something online in the previous 12 months at 88.78% in 2025, against an EU average of 73.56%. In the Riksbank’s payment survey of September 2025, 80% said they had shopped online in the past month, up from 75% in 2022 and 2023 and 56% in 2018. PostNord’s E-barometern put Swedish e-commerce at SEK 153 billion in 2025, up 10% on 2024.
Swish and pay later lead at checkout. The Riksbank reports that the single most common methods for online purchases are Swish and buy now, pay later services such as Klarna, and that both have grown since 2023 while fewer people report paying by debit card. Counted together, debit cards, credit cards and cards stored in phones made up 64% of the payment methods respondents used online in the past 30 days.
Swish is part of daily life. In the same survey, 91% of respondents had used Swish in the past month, up from 82% in 2023. For online stores, banks offer Swish Handel: the store sends a payment request to the shopper’s Swish app, and the shopper approves it with Mobile BankID, which shows the store’s name and Swish number. The store can also create a QR code for the shopper to scan from a screen. Swish works only in SEK, the money reaches the store’s account straight away, and Swedbank sets a maximum of SEK 150,000 per payment to a business. Full or partial refunds can be sent within 12 months of the original payment.
Bank payments are another option. Trustly lets a shopper pay a store directly from their bank account: they choose their bank at checkout, approve the payment with the bank’s own security method and return to the store for confirmation.
What rules shape online payments in Sweden?
Credit cannot come first. Since 1 July 2020, when a shopper buying online can choose a payment method that does not involve credit, that method must be shown first, and a credit method may not be pre-selected when other methods are offered. This affects how invoice and part-payment options sit in a checkout.
Card and Swish surcharges are banned. Under the Payment Services Act (2010:751), as explained by Konsumenternas Bank- och finansbyrå, a store may not charge a separate fee because the shopper pays by card or Swish.
Shoppers have 14 days to withdraw. Under the Distance Contracts Act (2005:59), the period for goods starts the day after the shopper receives them. The store must refund within 14 days, by the same method the shopper paid with, and cannot deduct administrative fees from a full refund. Since 19 June 2026, websites and apps must also offer a withdrawal function that is free, easy to find and available for the whole withdrawal period, and that sends the shopper an automatic receipt.
VAT is 25%, with reduced rates of 12% and 6%. Most food is taxed at 6% instead of 12% from 1 April 2026 to 31 December 2027. A seller established in another EU country whose cross-border sales to consumers across the EU pass EUR 10,000 a year charges Swedish VAT on sales to Swedish customers, and can declare it through the One Stop Shop.
Card payments need strong customer authentication. Since 14 September 2019, payment service providers across the EU have had to confirm the shopper with two of three factors: something they know, something they own or something they are. The European Commission describes the rule as applying to online payments above EUR 30, with a number of exemptions.
How would Omno route payments in Sweden?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In Sweden:
- Swish pay-ins would go to a provider connected to Swish Handel, with the hosted checkout sending the payment request to the shopper’s phone or showing a QR code on a computer, and the order pending until Swish confirms.
- Card pay-ins would follow the merchant’s rules by card type, currency and amount, with cascading to the next provider in the rule when a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, until one accepts. Apple Pay and Google Pay would follow the same card rules.
- Pay later and bank payments would go to the providers the merchant has contracts with, shown after the options without credit as Swedish rules require.
- Saved cards would let returning customers pay without a new card form each time.
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 Swish on mobile. Nine in ten people used it in the past month, it is one of the two most common online methods, and it works only in SEK.
Plan for the order of payment methods. Put options without credit first and leave nothing pre-selected, so the checkout meets the rule in force since 2020.
Plan for the withdrawal function. Since 19 June 2026 an online store needs a clearly labelled way to withdraw on the same site or app, and refunds go back by the method the shopper used.
Plan for VAT changes. Food sold online is taxed at 6% until the end of 2027, and EU sellers over the EUR 10,000 threshold charge Swedish VAT.