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What is a payment channel?
A payment channel is a broad term encompassing any way you, as a merchant, might accept a payment; and anywhere your customer might purchase from your business.
Payment channels are, by their most basic definition, the mechanisms or avenues through which you transact with your customers. They aren’t to be confused with retail channels or payment methods – they’re somewhere in between.
While payment methods – digital wallets, credit cards, virtual terminals – refer to the specific method a customer might use to pay, payment channels are wider and overarching: accounting for the different places, technologies, and ways involved in the digital payments you accept.
At your bricks-and-mortar store, for example, you might accept payments via digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, as well as with credit and debit cards. Think of payment channels as a collection of payment methods as they apply to a specific retail channel: such as online or in-store.
The main payment channels for businesses in 2025 are:
- Online checkout
- In-app payments
- Virtual terminals
- In-person card machines
- Bank transfers
- Remittances
- B2B payment platforms
- Recurring payments (subscription)
We’ll unpack each of these payment channels in more detail later on in this article.