How to reduce checkout abandonment in Singapore: A local payment methods guide (2026)

Key takeaways:

• Cart abandonment in Asia Pacific sits at around 87%¹, well above the global average of 70%². The single biggest fixable cause for Singapore merchants is missing local payment methods at checkout.

• The right local payment method (LPM) mix depends on who you sell to: Singapore shoppers reach for PayNow and GrabPay, regional buyers expect FPX, QRIS, or GCash, and global customers want Alipay, iDEAL, or Pix.

• With Airwallex, you can create a single Business Account to unlock 160+ local payment methods across 180+ countries.

To reduce checkout abandonment, Singapore merchants need to look beyond pricing and product pages and focus on one of the biggest friction points in the buying journey: payment.

With cart abandonment rates across Asia Pacific reaching 87%¹, many businesses are losing customers simply because their preferred payment method is not available at checkout.

From PayNow and GrabPay for local shoppers to FPX, QRIS, and GCash for regional buyers, offering the right mix of local payment methods can make the difference between a completed sale and a lost opportunity.

Here’s how Singapore businesses can optimise their checkout experience to recover more revenue and convert more customers in 2026.

Why checkout abandonment in Singapore looks different from the rest of the world

Singapore merchants face a tougher conversion battle than peers in North America or Europe. Asia Pacific runs at around 87%¹ cart abandonment, well above the global average of 70%². The gap traces back to how the region actually pays.

Most Singapore eCommerce traffic comes from a smartphone, where a one-tap wallet feels a lot easier than typing a 16-digit card number. That alone tilts the odds against any checkout built around credit cards.

On top of that, Singapore shoppers do not default to cards in the first place. PayNow handles instant transfers and GrabPay or ShopeePay covers wallet payments. Atome and SPayLater own buy now, pay later (BNPL), while DBS PayLah! and NETS handle everyday spend.

The picture gets more complex the moment you sell beyond Singapore. Customers across Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand expect their own local rails — FPX, QRIS, GCash, MoMo, PromptPay. Asking them to pay with a Visa card creates the same friction.

Why local payment methods are the highest-impact lever

Most checkout abandonment guides treat payments as one item on a long list. In practice, the right local payment method (LPM) mix solves several causes of abandonment at once. That compounding effect is why it punches above its weight.

What counts as a local payment method

A local payment method is any way to pay that buyers in a specific market prefer beyond global card schemes like Visa and Mastercard. They fall into a few broad categories:

• Real-time bank rails such as PayNow in Singapore, FPX in Malaysia, VietQR in Vietnam, PromptPay in Thailand, and Pix in Brazil

• Digital wallets such as GrabPay, ShopeePay, and DBS PayLah! in Singapore; GCash and Maya in the Philippines; DANA and OVO in Indonesia; Alipay and WeChat Pay in China

• BNPL options such as Atome and SPayLater in Singapore, and Klarna or Afterpay in Western markets

• Bank transfer and direct debit options such as iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, and SEPA across the eurozone

Each method maps to a specific buyer expectation. Get the mix right and you remove the most common reason a shopper closes the tab without paying.

3 ways local payment methods reduce abandonment

There are three ways in which local payment methods reduce abandonment and improve conversions.

The first is eligibility. If a shopper cannot pay with the method they actually have available, they cannot complete the purchase. Around 10% of shoppers cite "not enough payment methods" as the reason they abandoned a cart².

The second is trust. Around 19% of shoppers abandon because they do not trust the site with their credit card details². Local payment methods that skip card entry sidestep that hesitation entirely. PayNow moves money bank-to-bank, GrabPay charges a stored wallet, and FPX redirects the shopper to log into their own bank.

The third is friction. Typing a 16-digit card number plus expiry and CVV on a small phone screen is genuinely painful. A two-tap wallet payment is much easier.

The cross-border multiplier

The problem grows when you sell beyond Singapore.

Most of your customers in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand do not reach for a credit card by default. They pay with FPX, QRIS, GCash, MoMo, or PromptPay — and when those options are missing at checkout, they leave.

Wherever your buyers are, the answer is the same: support the local payment methods they actually use.

Local payment methods popular in Singapore

If you have been selling in Singapore for a while, you probably have most of these sorted already. Here’s a quick refresher before we get into the markets that usually need more attention:

For a more in-depth look, read our article on local payment methods in Singapore.

Local payment methods popular in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is where most Singapore merchants leave the most revenue on the table. Each market has its own dominant rails, and shoppers stick to them. Here is what you need to offer in the five biggest markets in Southeast Asia:

Malaysia

Malaysian shoppers split their checkout habits between online banking and wallets, with cards taking a back seat for most online purchases. Higher-value baskets tend to go through online banking; everyday spend leans on QR and wallets.

Key methods to support:

• FPX — online banking rail connecting to almost every Malaysian bank, dominant for higher-value purchases

• DuitNow QR — national real-time QR scheme, common for smaller amounts

• Touch 'n Go eWallet — leading mobile wallet

• GrabPay — strong reach among Grab users

Indonesia

Indonesia is mobile-first and wallet-first, with low card penetration outside a thin upper-income segment. A national QR standard now links most wallets and banks under one scannable code, and several wallets compete for everyday spend. Bank transfers remain popular for higher-value purchases.

Key methods to support:

• QRIS — national QR standard, expected at almost every digital checkout

• GoPay — wallet tied to the Gojek app

• OVO — long associated with Tokopedia and Grab

• DANA — general-purpose wallet with broad eCommerce coverage

• Virtual Account bank transfers — common for higher-value purchases

Philippines

The Philippines runs on two large mobile wallets and a real-time interbank rail. Most Filipino shoppers expect at least one wallet option at checkout, and the same rails are used for everything from utility bills to online shopping.

Key methods to support:

• GCash — the largest mobile wallet by a wide margin

• Maya (formerly PayMaya) — main alternative, strong with younger shoppers

• InstaPay — real-time interbank transfers

• Cards — relevant for a smaller, higher-income segment

Vietnam

Vietnamese shoppers prefer wallets and QR-based bank transfers over cards. Wallets are tied to the apps people already use every day, and a national QR standard now covers most banks.

Key methods to support:

• MoMo — the dominant mobile wallet, used by tens of millions of people

• ZaloPay — strong reach among Zalo messaging app users

• VietQR — national QR standard for instant bank transfers, accepted across most Vietnamese banks

Thailand

Thailand's checkout is built around a national real-time payments scheme that lets shoppers pay using a mobile number, national ID, or QR code. It is the default for almost every digital transaction.

Wallets cover everyday spend and have particularly strong reach among users of specific apps. Cards still matter for travel and higher-AOV purchases.

Key methods to support:

• PromptPay — national real-time payments scheme, default for most checkouts

• TrueMoney — leading wallet for everyday spend

• Rabbit LINE Pay — strong reach among LINE app users

• Cards — still relevant for travel and higher-AOV purchases

Local payment methods popular in the rest of the world

Many Singapore eCommerce, retail, and travel businesses sell well beyond Southeast Asia.

Each area has its own dominant payment methods, and the same principle applies: if you do not support these methods, you lose the sale.

Greater China

Chinese consumers almost never reach for a foreign credit card online.

Two super-app wallets (Alipay and WeChat Pay) handle the vast majority of digital payments domestically and increasingly when Chinese travellers shop abroad. A domestic card scheme, UnionPay, covers the rest.

Key methods to support:

• Alipay — the largest mobile wallet, used across eCommerce, in-store, and travel

• WeChat Pay — embedded in the WeChat super-app, used daily by hundreds of millions

• UnionPay — China's domestic card scheme, accepted by most Chinese banks

Europe

European checkout is heavily fragmented by country, and each major market has its own preferred rail beyond cards.

Bank-based methods dominate in the Netherlands and Belgium, while BNPL is widely used across Germany and the Nordics. SEPA covers euro-denominated bank transfers across the eurozone.

Key methods to support:

• iDEAL — the dominant online banking method in the Netherlands

• Bancontact — the leading payment method in Belgium

• SEPA Direct Debit — euro-denominated bank transfers across the eurozone

• Klarna — widely used BNPL option, particularly strong in Germany and the Nordics

• Sofort — bank transfer option popular in Germany and Austria

United States, United Kingdom, and Australia

These markets remain card-heavy, but mobile wallets and BNPL have changed buyer expectations at checkout.

Apple Pay and Google Pay are now table stakes on mobile, and missing them costs you the one-tap conversion. BNPL is a growing share of higher-AOV purchases, particularly in fashion, beauty, and travel.

Key methods to support:

• Cards — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover for the US

• Apple Pay and Google Pay — table stakes for mobile checkout

• PayPal — still widely used across all three markets

• Klarna and Afterpay — leading BNPL options for higher-AOV baskets

Latin America

Latin America has shifted quickly toward real-time bank payments and cash-based vouchers, particularly in Brazil and Mexico. Card penetration is uneven, and many shoppers either do not have a credit card or prefer not to use one online.

Key methods to support:

• Pix — Brazil's real-time payments scheme, now the dominant checkout method

• Boleto Bancário — cash-based voucher widely used in Brazil for online purchases

• OXXO — cash payment voucher widely used in Mexico

• Cards — still relevant for higher-income segments across the region

Matching payment methods to your buyer and business

You don’t need to support every payment method in every market. The right mix depends on where your buyers are, what they buy, their Average Order Value (AOV), and how they pay. Here’s how you can look at it:

For travel and hospitality, you’ll notice that the list of payment methods runs longer than the rest.

That’s because AOV is higher, booking flows are longer, and guests often pay in a currency that is not yours. For example, a Vietnamese family booking a Singapore hotel wants to pay in VND through MoMo or a local card. A Chinese tourist booking a Sentosa experience wants Alipay. A British honeymooner wants Apple Pay in GBP.

With order values often running into the thousands, it makes sense for travel and hospitality businesses to invest in the broadest payment mix they reasonably can — every recovered booking pays back the integration effort many times over.

Other ways to reduce checkout abandonment

Payment methods are the highest-impact lever, but they are not the only one. A few other fixes consistently reduce abandonment and compound the gains from a stronger payment mix.

Fix 1: Show total cost upfront and offer guest checkout

Unexpected costs at the final step are the single biggest reason shoppers abandon — 39% of US shoppers cite extra costs like shipping, tax, or fees as their reason for walking away².

Show shipping, taxes, and any fees as early as the cart page, not at the final review screen. On the same screen, give shoppers the option to buy without creating an account. A guest checkout that captures the email at the start lets you still send order updates and recovery emails without the friction.

Fix 2: Optimise mobile checkout and reduce form fields

Most Singapore eCommerce traffic comes from a phone, and most phones are not great for typing long forms. Cut every field that is not strictly required, autofill what you can from the device, and use input types that bring up the right keyboard for numbers and email.

Wallet payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, GrabPay, and PayNow QR skip the form entirely on mobile, which is one more reason they convert better than credit card entry.

Fix 3: Add trust signals near the pay button

Around 19% of shoppers abandon because they do not trust the site with their card details².

Place security and trust signals where the decision actually happens — next to the pay button, not buried in the footer. Useful signals include PCI-compliant payment processing, recognised wallet logos, MAS-licensed payment partners, and clear returns and refund policies.

Reviews and ratings near the checkout button help for first-time buyers in particular.

Fix 4: Use abandoned cart recovery

Not every shopper who leaves is gone. Trigger a short email sequence within the first few hours of abandonment, then a follow-up within 24 hours. Keep the message short and link straight back to the saved cart.

For higher-AOV travel and BNPL-friendly purchases, an SMS or WhatsApp nudge often outperforms email, especially for buyers in Southeast Asia who are more active on messaging apps rather than emails.

How to add local payment methods through a single integration

Once you know which payment methods you need, the next question is how to actually get them live at checkout. In this section, we’ll walk you through two options.

Option 1: Integrating PSPs individually

The default path is to integrate one payment service provider (PSP) per market. A local SG gateway for PayNow and GrabPay, a Malaysian provider for FPX and Touch 'n Go, an Indonesian one for QRIS, a China-focused one for Alipay and WeChat Pay, and so on.

It looks reasonable on paper, but the operational drag adds up quickly:

• Multiple contracts, KYC processes, and onboarding cycles to manage

• A separate integration for each provider, plus ongoing maintenance as APIs change

• Funds settling into different accounts, in different currencies, on different schedules

• Reconciliation across multiple dashboards and reporting formats

• Customer support spread across multiple providers when a payment fails

We don’t recommend this approach, because every time you add a new market, you’ll have to start the whole process again.

Option 2: Using one provider to integrate multiple PSPs

Your other option is to use one provider that covers the local payment methods you need across every market, through a single integration.

You can do this with Airwallex — once you set up an Airwallex Global Account, this unlocks 160+ local payment methods across 180+ countries, including PayNow, GrabPay, FPX, QRIS, GCash, MoMo, Alipay, WeChat Pay, iDEAL, Pix, and other major card schemes.

Funds settle into multi-currency accounts you can hold, convert, or pay out from without forced conversion to a single base currency. That means fewer integrations to maintain, less FX leakage on every recovered sale, and a faster path to live whenever you expand into a new market.

Why Singapore businesses choose Airwallex

Getting access to 160+ local payment methods usually means months of work: separate contracts with providers in each market, separate KYC processes, separate integrations to build and maintain, and separate reconciliations once payments start coming in.

Airwallex compresses all of that into a single setup. One application, one integration, one dashboard, and the local payment methods your buyers expect are live at checkout across Singapore, Southeast Asia, and the rest of the world.

Here’s what you get with Airwallex:

Set up once, add markets without new integrations

Once you’re live with Airwallex, switching on QRIS for Indonesian buyers or Alipay for Chinese tourists takes just a few clicks. You skip the contract negotiations, KYC cycles, and API rebuilds that come with adding another provider every time you enter a new market.

Higher acceptance rates without extra work on your side

Airwallex routes each transaction through the highest-performing acquirer for that method and region and applies fraud scoring and 3D Secure intelligently — all without anything for your team to configure. This results in more genuine sales approved and fewer false declines.

Keep funds in the currency your customer paid in

When a customer pays in any of the 14 currencies Airwallex supports, you can hold the funds in that currency. There’s no forced conversions to SGD, and no FX fees to incur. If you do choose to convert, you get access to competitive FX rates (0.4% to 0.6% above interbank) that save you up to 80% on FX fees.

Run collections, payouts, and team spend from one place

The same account that collects customer payments also handles your outgoing money. Send international transfers to suppliers in 200+ countries (with free transfers to 120+ countries via local rails), issue multi-currency corporate cards to your team, and manage spend without switching between four different tools.

Regulated locally, supported locally

Airwallex (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. is licensed as a Major Payment Institution and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is the average checkout abandonment rate in Singapore?

There is no Singapore-specific published benchmark, but Asia Pacific runs at around 87%¹, which is well above the global average of 70%². Most Singapore merchants should expect to sit somewhere in that range, with travel and higher-AOV retail typically performing worse than fashion or food and beverage.

Why do shoppers abandon checkout?

Shoppers abandon for a mix of reasons. The biggest is unexpected costs at the final step, cited by 39% of US shoppers². Forced account creation, long or complicated forms, and lack of trust in card-handling each push another 18-19% to walk away². Missing payment methods and declined cards account for the rest of the avoidable abandonment.

How do local payment methods reduce cart abandonment?

Local payment methods reduce checkout abandonment by removing the most common reasons shoppers leave. They give buyers a method they actually have and trust, skip the friction of typing a 16-digit card number on mobile, and avoid the "I don't trust this site with my card" hesitation that drives 19% of abandonment². Adding the right local methods for each market often recovers more sales than any other single fix.

What payment methods do Singapore shoppers prefer?

Singapore shoppers reach for a mix of bank rails, wallets, and BNPL. PayNow leads for instant bank transfers, GrabPay and ShopeePay dominate mobile wallets, and Atome and SPayLater cover BNPL. Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, NETS, and DBS PayLah! also see regular use.

How do I accept PayNow, GrabPay, and other local payment methods on my website?

You can accept local payment methods either by integrating a separate payment service provider for each method, or by using one provider that covers them through a single integration. The single-integration route is faster to launch and easier to maintain as you expand. Airwallex supports 160+ local payment methods — including PayNow, GrabPay, ShopeePay, FPX, QRIS, and Alipay — through one integration for Singapore businesses.

What is the best way to reduce checkout abandonment for cross-border shoppers?

The best way to reduce checkout abandonment for cross-border shoppers is to offer their local payment method, not just international cards. A Malaysian shopper expects FPX or Touch 'n Go, an Indonesian shopper expects QRIS or GoPay, and a Chinese tourist expects Alipay or WeChat Pay. Without those options, cross-border conversion drops sharply regardless of how good your checkout UX is.

Sources:

1.  https://www.sellerscommerce.com/blog/shopping-cart-abandonment-statistics/

2.  https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate

This publication does not constitute legal, tax, or professional advice from Airwallex, nor does it substitute seeking such advice, and makes no express or implied representations / warranties / guarantees regarding content accuracy, completeness, or currency. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [[email protected]]. Airwallex (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (201626561Z) is licensed as a Major Payment Institution and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.