Payment methods in Switzerland

Put down the triangular-shaped chocolate, Switzerland has a burgeoning e-commerce market with the average spend per shopper growing fast.

Unsurprisingly, due to its high GDP and location between France, Italy and Germany, Switzerland has a strong market in luxury goods and a high demand for cross-border e-commerce. Its multilingual population (also with high English proficiency) means that businesses should consider offering multi-language options to reach as many Swiss consumers as possible.

Switzerland's payments landscape can be broken down into cash, card, invoice and a unique local payment method. Cash is still common, while cards are frequently used in Switzerland with the average Swiss holding at least three. Invoices are popular for e-commerce payments, while TWINT is a new and increasingly popular local payment method with 3 million users. Used for both e-commerce and at the point of sale, TWINT combines mobile payments with QR technology.

It’s easy to forget that Switzerland uses the Swiss Franc, not the Euro, which means higher fees may apply for EU transactions when the merchant has a Swiss entity.