The Most Popular Payment Methods in Europe

Providing the right payment methods in your online shop or for your digital services is key to increase conversion and reduce cart abandonment. But Europe is a diverse ecosystem, so choose wisely.

Credit Cards

Visa and Mastercard are by far the most popular non-domestic credit cards used in European countries. Cards like American Express or Diners Club barely make a mark statistically and therefore will not have much of an impact.

However, the market share of Visa and Mastercard depends heavily on the specific countries.

Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK are all very high in market share whereas countries like Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Norway prefer their domestic and other payment solutions over the global players.

Read more about popular payment methods in the Nordics (Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) here.

(Source: Statista, 2021)

Mobile/Digital Wallets

Digital wallets are quite possibly the future of payments but still struggle to set foot in specific countries, especially when it comes to online payments.

For example, in most European countries, Apple Pay is quite popular for in-store payments (usage ranges from 30 % to 67 %), whereas online, consumers are less likely to use the digital wallet (15 % to 40 %), probably because they have other payment methods in place.

(Source: Statista, 2024)

The type of digital wallet that is popular in each country also highly differs. Apple Pay and Google Pay might sound like no-brainers but in countries like Germany, PayPal reigns the digital wallet market, since it’s known there since the early years when it was still associated with the marketplace ebay. 91 % of German users pay with PayPal compared to 17 % who use Apple Pay or Google Pay. Read more about the most popular payment methods for the German market here.

On that account, adding PayPal as a payment method for a European market strategy is a must and is much more important if you want to cater to many European countries than Google Pay or Apple Pay. Although in-store payments via PayPal are much lower (31 % to 49 %), the online payments market share ranges from 76 % to 91 %.  

(Source: Statista, 2024)

Debit & bank transfers

Online, payment via debit cards, direct debit and bank transfers are still highly popular among consumers and customers alike and should therefore be part of your payment method mix.

More than 50 % of European consumers/customers buy items with small or big order sizes with debit cards (ca. 25 – 28 %), direct debit (14 % – 15 %) or bank transfer (11 % – 12 %).

(Source: Statista, 2022 for small and big order sizes)

Domestic Payment Solutions

Proper research is needed for you to identify your key countries for a European market strategy and focusing on their preferred payment methods. That way, it’s much easier to focus on the countries that are likely to have the biggest impact on your revenue and add the right payment methods for your new customers.

For some markets, aside from the general payment methods, there are domestic payment providers that are key to success since they are usually preferred by customers.

Popular domestic payment solutions in selected European countries

(Download Image as PDF)

• Austria – eps
• Belgium – Payconiq, Bancontact
• Denmark – Dankort, MobilePay, Santander, Viabill, Anyday
• Germany – PayPal, Klarna
• Finland – MobilePay, Santander
• Italy – Bancomat, Satispay, MyBank
• Lithuania – Paysera
• Luxembourg – Payconiq
• Netherlands – IDEAL, Tikkie
• Norway – Vipps, Santander
• Poland – Przelewy 24, Blik
• Portugal – Multibanco
• Sweden – Swish, Santander, Trustly
• Switzerland – Twint

---

The Billwerk+ Pay payment gateway offers more than 50 payment methods that are specifically curated for the European market (and beyond), so you can provide global and local methods for higher conversions and less cart abandonment.

See for yourself and test out Billwerk+ Pay free of charge (no credit card required).