How do people in Switzerland pay online?
The Swiss shop online more than most Europeans. Eurostat puts the share of people in Switzerland who bought something online in the previous 12 months at 85.5% in 2025, against an EU average of 73.56%.
Mobile payment apps lead remote payments. In the Swiss National Bank’s 2025 payment diary, remote transactions, which cover online shops, apps and invoices, were most often paid with mobile payment apps (32%), followed by credit cards (19%), online banking (17%) and debit cards (16%). The SNB names TWINT as the most widely used mobile payment app in Switzerland. Online banking is the preferred way to pay invoices.
TWINT is the local favourite. It handled more than 901 million transactions in 2025, up 17% on the year, and has more than 6 million users, about two in three residents. About 77% of its transactions were payments to businesses, and it is offered by about 86% of online shops and 81% of physical stores in Switzerland. Online, the shopper scans a QR code on desktop or switches to the TWINT app on mobile and approves the payment there. TWINT payments are in CHF and support recurring payments; disputes are rare.
Cards and PostFinance follow. Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards are widely held. PostFinance, the postal bank, now offers PostFinance Pay, which lets more than 1 million customers pay through the PostFinance App and replaced the older PostFinance Card and E-Finance online methods. Instant payments have been possible in Switzerland since August 2024, and a quarter of the population had used them at least once by autumn 2025.
What rules shape online payments in Switzerland?
There is no general right of withdrawal. Swiss law does not give shoppers a withdrawal period or right of return once an online order is placed. A seller can offer one in its terms, and members of the retail association HANDELSVERBAND.swiss commit to a 14-day return right under its code of ethics.
Online sellers have information duties. Under Article 3(1)(s) of the Unfair Competition Act (UWG), an online shop must state its identity and contact address including email, explain the technical steps to a contract, let the customer find and correct input errors before ordering, and confirm the order by email straight away.
Data protection follows the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), supervised by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. Switzerland is outside the EU, so a shop that sells into the EU from Switzerland may also need to follow EU consumer rules for those customers.
VAT is 8.1%, with a reduced rate of 2.6% for basic goods and 3.8% for lodging. Foreign mail-order sellers become liable for Swiss VAT when they make at least CHF 100,000 a year from small consignments to Switzerland, and since 1 January 2025 online platforms are treated as the supplier for goods sold through them, so the duty to register shifts to the platform.
How would Omno route payments in Switzerland?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In Switzerland:
- TWINT pay-ins would go to a provider that supports TWINT in CHF, with QR code or app switch in the hosted checkout and the order confirmed by the provider’s notification.
- 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 sit in the same checkout.
- PostFinance Pay could be offered through a provider that supports it, for shoppers who bank with PostFinance.
- Currency rules could keep Swiss shoppers in CHF and send EUR payments from EU shoppers to providers set up for EUR.
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 TWINT first. Most Swiss online shops offer it, and it is the most used mobile payment app for remote purchases.
Plan for CHF. TWINT works in CHF, and payment providers may require prices to be shown in CHF at checkout at the latest.
Plan for your own returns policy. Swiss law sets none for online sales, so state clearly in your terms whether you accept returns and within what period.
Plan for Swiss VAT. Check whether your small consignments to Switzerland pass CHF 100,000 a year, or whether a platform you sell through already handles VAT.