How to Take PromptPay Payments in Your Online Shop, Without a Gateway or Commission

Ask a customer in Thailand how they want to pay and most will not say “card”. They will open their banking app, scan a QR code and send the money in a few seconds. PromptPay has become the default way to pay for almost everything: a coffee, a haircut, a dress ordered over LINE, a deposit for a catering job.

For a business that sells online, this is good news. You do not need a payment gateway, a merchant contract or a developer to get paid. Your customers already know how to pay you. The real challenge sits somewhere else: once twenty transfers have come in on a busy evening, which one belongs to which order? And is the slip in the chat a real transfer, or an edited screenshot?

This article explains how PromptPay works for a business, what a payment gateway adds and what it costs, and a simple routine that ties every payment to an order so that nothing gets lost.

How PromptPay Works for a Business

PromptPay is Thailand’s national instant payment system, run through the banks. A PromptPay account is not a separate wallet. It is a link between an identifier and your existing bank account. For a person, that identifier is usually a mobile number or a citizen ID. For a company, it can be the tax ID.

A business can receive PromptPay money in two common ways:

• A static QR code. One QR for your shop, printed by the till or saved as an image. The customer scans it and types the amount themselves.
• A merchant QR from your bank. Many Thai banks offer a business QR through their merchant or shop app. Some versions let you create a QR with the amount already filled in, and send a notification when the money arrives.

Either way, the money moves directly from the customer’s bank account to yours, usually within seconds. Nothing sits with a third party. There is no payout to wait for.

Fees depend on your bank and your account type. Personal PromptPay transfers are generally free. Merchant QR services may carry a small fee on some accounts or above certain volumes. Check the terms with your own bank before you choose which QR to show your customers.

What a Payment Gateway Adds, and What It Costs

A payment gateway sits between the customer and your bank. Instead of the customer scanning your QR, they pay through the gateway’s checkout page, which can accept PromptPay, cards and wallets in one place.

A gateway gives you real advantages:

• Automatic confirmation. The order is marked paid the moment the payment clears. Nobody has to check a slip.
• Card payments. Useful for customers who cannot use PromptPay, including many tourists.
• Refunds and reports in one dashboard.

It also comes with costs that a growing shop feels:

• A fee on every sale, usually a percentage of the order. On card payments in particular this adds up quickly on a busy month.
• A payout delay. The gateway collects the money and pays it out to you on its own schedule, often a few days later.
• An application and setup step, with documents to submit and sometimes a website that meets the gateway’s requirements.

For a business with thousands of orders a month, a gateway is often worth it. For a business taking orders through LINE and Facebook from customers who already pay by PromptPay, the gateway mainly solves one problem: knowing which payment belongs to which order. That problem can be solved without it.

The Real Problem: Matching Transfers to Orders

Here is what a typical evening looks like for a shop that sells through chat. A customer orders two items in LINE. Another orders on Facebook. A third books a massage for Saturday. Each one sends a slip. Some send it in the chat, some forget. One customer pays the wrong amount. Another pays from their partner’s account, so the name on the transfer does not match.

By the end of the evening, the owner is scrolling through the banking app trying to match ฿480, ฿480, ฿650 and ฿1,200 to the orders written in a notebook. When two orders have the same amount, there is no way to tell which is which.

Then there is the fake slip. Edited transfer screenshots are a known problem for Thai online sellers. A slip in the chat proves nothing. The only proof is the money in your account.

The fix is a routine, not a gateway.

A Simple Routine That Ties Every Payment to an Order

1. Give every order a number before the customer pays. The number is the anchor for everything that follows. It goes on the order list, in the message to the customer and in the transfer.

2. Ask the customer to put the order number in the transfer note. Every Thai banking app has a note or memo field. A transfer that says “order 1042” can only belong to one order, even if three orders cost ฿480.

3. Show the QR at the moment of ordering, with the amount and the order number next to it. The customer should not have to ask “how do I pay?” and wait for a reply. The moment they finish ordering is the moment they are most ready to pay.

4. Check payments in your banking app, not in the chat. Open the app, find the transfer, read the note, then mark the order as paid. A slip from the customer is a reminder to check, never the check itself.

5. Keep a list of unpaid orders, with how long they have been waiting. Most unpaid orders are not bad customers. They are busy people who meant to pay later. A polite reminder after a day or two recovers most of them. Without a list, they are simply forgotten.

6. Release stock only for paid orders, or decide clearly how long you hold an item for an unpaid order. This avoids selling the last item twice.

None of this needs special software, but it does need discipline. The routine breaks the moment orders live in three different chats and a notebook.

What About Tourists and Expats?

PromptPay works for anyone with a Thai bank account, which includes many long-stay expats. Most short-stay tourists do not have one. Thailand has linked its QR payments with several neighbouring countries, so visitors from some markets can scan a Thai QR with their own banking app, but this does not cover everyone.

If tourists are an important part of your business, offer a clear fallback on your how-to-order page: payment on pickup, cash on delivery for local orders, or a card at the counter. Say it in English. A tourist who does not know how to pay will not ask, they will leave.

Questions to Ask Before You Choose

• How many orders do you take in a month? Below a few hundred, a clear routine usually beats a gateway fee.
• How many of your customers pay by card? If most pay by PromptPay already, a gateway mostly adds cost.
• How fast do you need the money? Direct QR payments arrive in your account immediately. Gateway payouts arrive later.
• Who checks the payments? If staff check them, a written routine and one order list matter even more.

Where ShopSmart Fits

ShopSmart was built around this exact routine. You upload your PromptPay or bank QR once. When a customer orders from your shop, they see your QR on screen straight away, with the order number and the amount. They get the same QR again in their confirmation email, with the order number to put in the transfer note.

Every order lands in one dashboard with its status: awaiting payment, paid or completed. Unpaid orders show how many days they have been waiting, so you know who to remind. The customer pays you directly. ShopSmart never touches the money and takes no commission, and the Free plan covers up to 20 products or services.

Your customers already know how to pay you. The job is making sure every baht lands on the right order.