Research / Online Retail Radar
How many online stores offer buy now, pay later? 2026 data
Updated · Source: The Online Retail Radar, September 2026
Short answer
Few. On 30 September 2026, Zip, the most common buy-now-pay-later method, appeared on 2.5% of 684 online stores with a detected payment method, and Klarna on 1.9%. Express wallets are near-universal: PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay each sat on 85%.
2.5%
of stores offer Zip, the top BNPL method
Klarna 1.9% · 684 stores, September 2026
85%
offer PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay
Shop Pay 84%, Amazon Pay 72%
84%
offered PayPal and Apple Pay in August
579 stores, August 2026
Wallets and buy-now-pay-later on online stores, August vs September 2026
Share of stores with a detected payment method that offer each method; card networks excluded. August: 579 stores. September: 684 stores, read on 30 September. Buy-now-pay-later was first ranked in September.
| August 2026 | September 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| PayPal | 84% | 85% |
| Apple Pay | 84% | 85% |
| Google Pay | 83% | 85% |
| Shop Pay | 83% | 84% |
| Amazon Pay | 68% | 72% |
| Zip (BNPL) | not ranked | 2.5% |
| Klarna (BNPL) | not ranked | 1.9% |
Express wallets are the floor
On 30 September 2026, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay each appeared on 85% of the 684 online stores where RivalSweeper detected a payment method, Shop Pay on 84% and Amazon Pay on 72%. The top five wallets were the same, in the same order, as at the end of August.
For an AI shopping agent that has to complete a purchase, a wallet is a rail it can drive. With the big wallets almost everywhere, the one-tap layer is largely solved.
Buy now, pay later is still rare
The most common buy-now-pay-later method, Zip, appeared on 2.5% of those stores, and Klarna on 1.9%. That is fewer than 3 in 100 stores for any single BNPL method.
Read the BNPL numbers as a floor. BNPL options often load late on the page and are easy to miss, which is why the August edition did not rank them at all.
Edition trend
Wallets were measured in the August and September 2026 editions. Every top-five wallet held or gained share between the two months, and the order did not change. The two editions read different store counts (579 and 684), so treat a one-point move as flat.
| Method | August 2026 (579 stores) | September 2026 (684 stores) |
|---|---|---|
| PayPal | 84% | 85% |
| Apple Pay | 84% | 85% |
| Google Pay | 83% | 85% |
| Shop Pay | 83% | 84% |
| Amazon Pay | 68% | 72% |
| Zip (BNPL) | not ranked | 2.5% |
| Klarna (BNPL) | not ranked | 1.9% |
Method and sample
- Wallet, express-checkout and buy-now-pay-later methods detected on public storefronts on 30 September 2026. Card networks are excluded.
- Shares are of stores with at least one detected payment method: 684 in September 2026, 579 in August 2026. Stores where no method could be read are left out, never counted as zero.
- Detection can miss options that only appear deep in checkout, and BNPL loads late, so BNPL shares are a floor.
- Results are aggregated; no store or brand is named.
Full edition, with every section and sample size: The Online Retail Radar, September 2026. Methodology for the whole series: Online Retail Radar.
Questions
What percentage of online stores offer buy now, pay later?
Very few. On 30 September 2026, Zip, the most common buy-now-pay-later method, appeared on 2.5% of 684 online stores with a detected payment method, and Klarna on 1.9%. BNPL loads late on the page and is easy to miss, so read these as a floor.
How many online stores accept Apple Pay?
Most of them. Apple Pay appeared on 85% of 684 online stores with a detected payment method in September 2026, up from 84% of 579 stores in August 2026.
How many online stores accept PayPal?
About 85%. PayPal appeared on 85% of 684 online stores with a detected payment method in September 2026, level with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and on 84% of 579 stores in August 2026.
Which express checkout is most common on online stores?
PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay are tied at 85% of stores with a detected payment method (September 2026, 684 stores), followed by Shop Pay at 84% and Amazon Pay at 72%. The order was the same at the end of August.
Why do express wallets matter for AI shopping agents?
An agent completing a purchase needs a payment rail it can drive. With PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay on about 85% of stores, that layer is largely solved, so the difference between stores moves to signals like delivery details and whether a listing can really be bought.
Cite this
RivalSweeper, "How many online stores offer buy now, pay later? 2026 data", The Online Retail Radar, September 2026, https://www.rivalsweeper.com/research/bnpl-and-express-checkout-adoption
Licensed under CC BY 4.0: free to share and adapt with attribution to RivalSweeper and a link to this page.
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