Payment methods

Payment methods are the different ways a customer can pay for a product or a service. VTEX supports the following types:

• Credit cards
• Debit cards
• Digital wallets
• Cash
• Custom payments
  • Notes payable
  • Private label
  • Co-branded
• Regional payments
  • Instant payments (Pix from Brazil)
  • Boleto (Brazil)
  • PSE (Colombia)

The list above covers the payment method families supported by the platform. It's not an exhaustive list of what a specific store can offer. Availability depends on the store's country, the payment providers connected to the account, and the account configuration.

To find out which payment methods an account can offer:

• Check the list of payment providers by country to see the providers that operate in a specific market and the methods they support.
• Review the payment providers configured in the Payments module of the VTEX Admin. For more information, see Register payment and anti-fraud providers.

Payment methods also vary from country to country. Before integrating with VTEX, check whether the methods your system processes are compatible with the platform.

A payment provider declares the payment methods it supports through the paymentMethods array returned by the List Payment Provider Manifest endpoint. Each entry contains a name, which identifies the payment method, and an allowsSplit value, which declares whether that provider supports payment split for the method.

Use the following identifiers in the name field:

For custom payments, use only the supported method types (Cobranded, Privatelabels, or Promissories) in the name field. Do not use the business name of the custom payment, such as "Colombian Bank Promissory".

Cash isn't declared through the Payment Provider Protocol. It's configured directly in VTEX Sales App.

For the full request and response schemas, see the Payment Provider Protocol API reference. To learn how each method behaves during authorization, settlement, and cancellation, see Purchase Flows.

Financial institutions can offer a credit limit to their account holders. Customers use that credit through a credit card to make a purchase and pay for it later.

Credit cards operate through card networks, which manage credit card operations. Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Diners are examples of card networks. For more information, see Credit card payment flow.

Credit cards can also support installments, depending on the payment condition configured in the store. In the Payment Provider Protocol, the number of installments is sent in the installments field of the Create Payment request.

A debit card is offered by a financial institution to its account holders. Purchases are paid right away, with the amount deducted directly from the customer's bank account.

Like credit cards, debit cards also operate through card networks.

For configuration examples, see Setting up Visa Debit and Setting up debit direct sale in VTEX Sales App.

Cash payments can be enabled in VTEX Sales App. After you configure and enable this payment method, cash payments can be received at a physical store or on delivery. For more information, see Configuring cash payments through VTEX Sales App.

A digital wallet, also called an e-wallet, stores the customer's payment credentials so they can pay without entering their card information at checkout. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are examples of digital wallets supported by VTEX.

For an overview of how digital wallets work, see What is an e-wallet and the Digital wallet (e-wallet) track.

If you're building a connector that handles wallet transactions, see Google Pay: processing information for payment providers and anti-fraud and Setting up merchant ID in Apple Pay.

Custom payments are payment methods that don't follow standard market patterns. Their behavior is specific to each scenario where they apply.

VTEX supports three custom payment types: notes payable, private label, and co-branded.

The seller must manually approve each payment recorded on the platform. After approval, the transaction proceeds normally. Notes payable payments are mostly used to facilitate cash payments.

For configuration steps, see Setting up payments with Notes payable.

A private label is a credit card created exclusively for a store, using the store's own brand.

For configuration steps, see Setting up private label payments.

A co-branded card is also created exclusively for a store. Unlike a private label, it results from a partnership between a card network, such as Mastercard or Visa, and the store's brand.

For configuration steps, see Setting up payments with store card (co-branded).

Pix is the instant payment ecosystem implementation led by the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) to enable online money transfers with reduced costs, increased safety, and 24/7 availability. Transfers occur directly from the payer’s account to the payee’s account without intermediaries, resulting in lower transaction costs. For more information, see Pix: Instant Payments in Brazil.

Boleto is a popular payment method in Brazil. It's an official voucher that a customer can pay in cash at more than 200,000 locations, such as banks, post offices, and supermarkets, or electronically through internet banking. For more information, see Bank invoice (boleto) payment flow.

Although boletos are easy to pay, the payment can take up to two business days to be processed.

To configure this payment method in a store, see Configuring a Boleto.

In the Payment Provider Protocol manifest, this payment method is identified as BankInvoice.

PSE (Pagos Seguros en Línea) is an online payment method in Colombia that lets customers pay directly from their bank account. For integration details, see PSE payment method. To configure it in a store, see Setting up payments with PSE.

Every payment method has an associated payment condition. For more information, see Configuring a payment condition.