How do people in the United States pay online?
Online sales keep growing. Census Bureau estimates put retail e-commerce sales at USD 340.2 billion in the second quarter of 2026, seasonally adjusted, or 17.1% of total retail sales, up from 16.3% a year earlier.
Cards dominate. The Federal Reserve’s 2025 triennial payments study counted 236.6 billion noncash payments in 2024, with cards accounting for over three quarters of them by number. Debit cards still make up most card payments, but credit card payments grew faster than debit for the first time in almost a decade. Online, shoppers pay by typing card details or through digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal that store them.
Pay later is common. The Federal Reserve’s survey of household economics, fielded in October 2025, found that 16% of adults had used buy now, pay later, up 1 percentage point on the year before.
Bank payments run on ACH. Nacha reported 35.2 billion payments worth USD 93 trillion on the ACH Network in 2025, up nearly 5% in volume. Merchants can accept ACH debits from a shopper’s bank account through providers that support them.
What rules shape online payments in the United States?
Sales tax is set by the states. In South Dakota v. Wayfair, decided on 21 June 2018, the Supreme Court overruled the physical presence rule, so a state can require an out-of-state seller to collect its sales tax. The South Dakota law in that case applied to sellers with more than USD 100,000 of annual deliveries into the state or 200 or more separate transactions. Sellers need to check the rules of each state they ship to.
Orders must ship on time. Under the Federal Trade Commission’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, a seller must have a reasonable basis to ship within the time it states, or within 30 days if it states none. If it cannot, it must offer the buyer the choice to accept the delay or cancel. Refunds for cancelled orders are due within seven working days, or within one billing cycle where the seller is the card creditor.
Card surcharges have limits. Visa’s US merchant surcharge Q&A (version of 15 February 2024) allows surcharges on credit cards only, never on debit or prepaid cards. The surcharge cannot exceed the merchant’s discount rate for that card or 3%, whichever is lower, the merchant must notify its acquirer 30 days before starting, and the surcharge must be disclosed at checkout and on the receipt. Visa notes that some states prohibit or restrict surcharging.
Privacy rules vary by state. The California Consumer Privacy Act applies to for-profit businesses that do business in California and meet a revenue or data threshold. It gives Californians rights to know, delete and correct their personal information, to opt out of its sale or sharing, including through a global privacy control, and to limit the use of sensitive information.
How would Omno route payments in the United States?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency, amount and customer group. In the US:
- Card pay-ins would be routed by the merchant’s rules, for example by BIN, card type, amount or customer group, 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 offered on the hosted checkout next to the card form and routed to providers that support them, under the same rules as cards.
- ACH payments could be offered through a provider that supports them, with the order pending until the provider confirms the payment.
- Saved cards would let returning customers pay without typing their card again, and each charge would follow the merchant’s routing rules.
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 cards and wallets first. Cards carry most payments, and Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal save shoppers from typing card details on a phone.
Plan for pay later options for the customer groups and order sizes where they make sense, since 16% of adults used them in 2025.
Plan for sales tax state by state. Check where your sales cross each state’s thresholds and collect tax there.
Plan for card rules before adding a surcharge. Visa allows them on credit cards only, within limits, and some states prohibit them.