Thailand payment strategy for SMEs: Payment collections, remittances, and cost controls

For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Hong Kong looking to build a long-term presence in the Thai market, “collecting THB” or “sending money to Thailand” is only the starting point. To stay competitive as the market evolves, your business needs a forward-looking payment strategy that can orchestrate collections, currency conversion, and global payouts as you operate across borders. 

An all-in-one financial platform like Airwallex can power your business growth from a single, unified workspace, covering core financial operations from cost control and cash flow efficiency to risk management. It supports your expansion into Thailand with transparent costs, faster access to funds, and stronger risk management as your business grows.

The payment landscape in Thailand

Thailand is the most active online shopping market among the six major economies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). To accelerate eCommerce and digital market growth, the government has rolled out successive national programmes, including the “Thailand 4.0” economic reform agenda in 2017 and a third-phase digital development plan in 2023, which aims to lift the digital economy’s share of GDP to around 30% by 2028.

According to the 2024 e-Conomy Southeast Asia (SEA) report – “Profits on the rise, harnessing SEA’s advantage” – by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, Thailand’s total digital payment transaction value could reach US$250–310 billion by 2030. Thai consumers are now used to paying with PromptPay QR, the TrueMoney digital wallet, and credit cards for their daily expenses. Among all payment methods, PromptPay, which many Hong Kong travellers are most familiar with, has become a key payment rail in Thailand’s digital economy. 

To tap into Thailand’s fast-growing digital economy, your business needs to understand the local payment landscape, including Thai consumers’ preferred payment methods, as well as the speed and compliance requirements for cross-border settlements. With that foundation in place, your team can turn traffic into completed checkouts more effectively and build repeat purchases that support long-term growth.

PromptPay QR: The local payment rail that dominates the market

PromptPay is a real-time payment system that operates under the Bank of Thailand. It links bank accounts to mobile numbers or national ID numbers, and lets users pay instantly by scanning a QR code, at a level of everyday usage that’s very similar to how consumers in Hong Kong use the Faster Payment System (FPS). 

On the business-to-consumer (B2C) side, more than 8 million merchants across Thailand accept PromptPay QR payments, so shoppers can see the option almost everywhere, from in-store checkouts to eCommerce payment pages. For Hong Kong SMEs selling to Thailand, supporting PromptPay at checkout is now close to a must-have – if you leave it out, you risk losing a significant share of local orders.

The challenges of traditional SWIFT transfers

For business-to-business (B2B) payments, many Hong Kong SMEs still rely on SWIFT wire transfers when paying Thai suppliers, manufacturers, or service providers. The process usually involves your local bank, one or more correspondent banks, and the recipient bank in Thailand, which can drive up your total cost as you may end up paying not only your remitting bank’s transfer fee, but also the extra cost that the correspondent and receiving banks charge.

Processing time is another friction point. Traditional SWIFT transfers typically take one to five business days to arrive, while compliance checks or public holidays can stretch that timeline even further. For SMEs that need to top up inventory quickly or pay deposits to manufacturers, delayed remittances can cause significant cash flow pressure. 

3 key challenges and solutions for businesses operating in Thailand

For many Hong Kong SMEs, the real hurdles when entering the Thai market are less about their products and more about how they handle payments. The challenges lie in FX rates, transaction costs, settlement speed, and the complexity of localising their financial operations. These hidden costs can eat straight into profits and put direct pressure on cash flow.

FX costs and hidden bank fees

When traditional banks process THB payments, they often add a spread to the exchange rate on top of the board rate, along with multiple other transaction fees. On paper, remittance fees may look low, but the actual cost is much higher once everything is added up. If your business is operating on thin margins, these hidden fees can quietly erode profitability as they compound over time. 

To minimise costs, more SMEs are turning to all-in-one financial and payment platforms like Airwallex, which uses its own FX engine to offer near-interbank rates. With Airwallex, businesses can save up to 80% on FX costs. This model works especially well for cross-border eCommerce brands and supply-chain-driven companies that regularly transact in THB and other currencies.

Slow settlement speed

SWIFT payments to Thailand typically take one to five business days to arrive. This timeline carries a high risk of delay, especially when additional compliance checks or document requests are required along the way. These delays can slow down your suppliers’ shipment schedules and make it harder for your business to secure production capacity ahead of peak seasons.

If you are looking to deliver funds either instantly or within the same day, Airwallex’s proprietary local payment network supports transactions in over 120 countries and regions, with 93% of transfers arriving the same day and 50% landing instantly.

Complex local operations

A common approach for Hong Kong businesses in Thailand is to set up a local company and bank account and use local payment gateways, third-party FX providers, or payment methods like PromptPay for collections and payouts. It is a traditional approach that many Hong Kong businesses take to handle collections and payouts in Thailand. But this adds layers of compliance and maintenance overhead, while fragmented transaction data makes reconciliation slower and more prone to errors. This model may work at low transaction volumes, but it can quickly become a bottleneck once you expand into eCommerce, multi-market advertising, and cross-border sourcing, where coordinating multiple systems can create friction at every step. For SMEs without a large finance team, a one-stop platform to orchestrate global payment collections, FX, and payouts is essential to reduce operational risk and manual work.

How to build your payment strategy for the Thai market

Once you have a clear view of the challenges above, you can start designing a payment strategy for your Thailand operations.

Adopt local payment methods to boost conversions

DataReportal’s global statistics show that Thailand ranks third worldwide for QR code usage in 2024, with 61.5% of its population paying with QR codes regularly, just behind China and Malaysia. If you only support international credit cards or cross-border bank transfers, you will struggle to reach mainstream Thai consumers who prefer QR codes and digital wallets, which can hamper checkout and refund experiences and drag down conversion rates. 

To build a well-rounded payment strategy for the Thai market, you should treat dominant local payment methods, such as PromptPay QR and TrueMoney Wallet, as must-have options in your core payment mix, and manage them through a single cross-border payment platform instead of patching together multiple local payment providers.

With Airwallex’s global Payments, you can unlock higher conversion rates by accepting over 160 local payment methods, including PromptPay QR, TrueMoney Wallet, and Rabbit LINE Pay. The platform lets you manage all transactions, refunds, and reconciliations in one place, giving your team clearer visibility over payment operations.

Speed up payments to Thai suppliers

Instead of going through multiple correspondent banks that add time and cost, businesses should look for payment solutions that route transfers through local payment networks to shorten settlement times and reduce fees. 

For instance, if you pay your supplier through Airwallex’s FX & Transfers, your Thai suppliers can receive funds faster as the platform uses a local payment network that spans over 120 countries and regions, with around 93% of transfers arriving on the same day and 50% landing instantly. It also supports payments in more than 90 currencies, which means you can convert HKD or USD to THB at near-interbank rates in a multi-currency account, then send THB directly into your Thai beneficiary account while avoiding double conversions and unnecessary FX costs.

Build a diversified currency profile

Many businesses fall into a costly pattern of repeated FX fees and additional currency risk – converting THB revenue into HKD, then converting HKD back to THB again when paying Thai expenses. A more strategic approach is to build a diversified currency profile by moving THB receipts from Thailand into a multi-currency account, then using that THB balance directly for local advertising, logistics, and supplier payments. You can still flexibly convert surplus THB into HKD or USD when FX rates are favourable, supporting your day-to-day operations across different markets while managing exposure to currency swings.

How Airwallex simplifies your payment flow in Thailand

An integrated financial platform is key to building a well-rounded payment strategy for expanding into the Thai market, eliminating the need to juggle multiple systems that can increase operational risk and costs. As a trusted global payments and financial platform, Airwallex serves cross-border businesses of any size and brings together Global Accounts, FX & Transfers, Payments, and Software Integrations into a single Business Account.

Collect THB via payment gateway and payment links

Businesses in Hong Kong can accept THB payments from Thai consumers on their eCommerce websites by integrating Airwallex’s online Payments at checkout. Once you are set up, consumers can pay you via a payment link or through more than 160 payment methods, including PromptPay QR, TrueMoney, and major credit cards.

After each successful transaction, you can choose to settle funds into major currencies such as HKD or USD and credit the funds to your Airwallex multi-currency accounts. This lets you centrally manage cash flow across markets and currencies without the need to open additional local bank accounts in Thailand. 

Pay global expenses at better FX rates

Besides access to exchange rates that are close to the interbank rate, Airwallex’s FX engine and real-time pricing come with transparent margins and no hidden fees. You can convert funds instantly or schedule one-off and batch payments on the same platform. For Hong Kong SMEs that work with Thailand and other ASEAN markets frequently, this means you can keep FX spreads within a more predictable range by managing procurement, distribution, and service costs for multiple countries in one place, without opening separate local bank accounts or relying on different remittance providers in each market.

Streamline your finance operations on a single platform

As a one-stop financial platform, Airwallex does more than payments and transfers – it also connects seamlessly with leading accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, such as Xero and NetSuite. Once your employees have uploaded receipts for reimbursement, the platform uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to automatically capture all relevant data, reducing manual data entry and reconciliation errors. For SMEs without a large finance team, this lets you redeploy limited resources from repetitive data input to higher-value analysis and decision-making, significantly improving financial and operational efficiency.

Build your global business with strong fund protection

When choosing a cross-border payments and remittance platform, security and compliance should matter just as much as price and speed. Airwallex holds over 80 financial regulatory licences worldwide and adheres to international security standards, including PCI DSS, SOC 1, and SOC 2 compliance, to safeguard your business funds with a high level of protection.

On top of that, Airwallex keeps its customer funds in dedicated accounts with leading financial institutions and fully separates them from the platform’s own operating capital, so you remain the beneficial owners of your funds. Together with end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and continuous risk monitoring, this multi-layered approach lets your team stay focused on scaling in Thailand without having to worry about the security of your funds and data.

Frequently asked questions about payments in Thailand

Do I need a physical store in Thailand to receive payments?

Traditionally, businesses would need to set up a local entity and open a Thai bank account before they could accept THB like a domestic company. The process is both time‑consuming and costly, as it involves company registration, document submission, and in-person account opening. A modern alternative is to integrate Airwallex’s online Payments solution at the checkout to let consumers pay you via a payment link or through more than 160 payment methods, including PromptPay QR, TrueMoney, and major credit cards.

What is the best way to pay Thai suppliers from Hong Kong?

If you rely on traditional SWIFT transfers, you may face uncertain settlement times between one and five days, as well as multiple handling fees and FX spreads that can erode your profit margins. By paying Thai suppliers through Airwallex’s local payment network, funds can arrive much faster, with 93% of transfers landing within hours or on the same day, and 50% credited instantly.

How does Airwallex handle THB conversions?

Besides offering near-interbank rates, Airwallex keeps its fee structure transparent. You can clearly see your final fees and exchange rate with a margin as low as 0.2% above the interbank rate before converting. You can also convert THB instantly on the platform or in batches over time in line with your treasury strategy, to better manage your overall FX risk.

Unlock your next growth chapter in Thailand

If your business is looking to seize Thailand’s booming digital and eCommerce market, now is the time to establish your presence there. With Airwallex’s technology-driven and compliant solutions, you can scale your international business as simply as a local business. Open an Airwallex Business Account and power your Thailand growth with a single, global financial platform.

Disclaimer: This article was prepared in December 2025 based on voluntary online research and publicly available information. We have not personally tested every tool or provider mentioned. This article is for educational purposes only, and readers should independently evaluate each service provider based on their specific business requirements. Content is updated every six months. To request an update, please contact us at [email protected].