How to Accept Payments in an Online Store in Bulgaria (2026)

Which payment methods should I offer?

Offer the ones Bulgarian shoppers actually use. The data is clear: 92.9% of stores offer cash on delivery, 77% accept cards, 58% allow bank transfer and 18.1% take digital wallets (Digipay, 2026). You do not need all of them, but a smart mix covers almost everyone.

A safe starting mix for most stores is cash on delivery plus card, with bank transfer for business buyers. For the delivery side of the order, see our guide on Econt, Speedy and BoxNow integration.

Why not rely only on cash on delivery?

Because the trend is moving away from it. Card, bank and mobile payments are growing at the expense of cash on delivery (BEA, 2025). Cash on delivery still has its place, but leaning on it alone has real costs you may not see at first.

• You get the money upfront. Card payment lands before the parcel ships. No waiting weeks for the courier to transfer the cash, better for your cash flow.
• Fewer refused parcels. With cash on delivery a buyer can simply not collect the parcel. A paid card order is committed, so you lose far fewer.
• Cheaper to sell abroad. Inside the eurozone a card payment needs no currency conversion, which makes selling to other EU customers simpler.

How much do card payments cost?

Less than most people expect. For local and European cards myPOS charges 1.30% + €0.10 per transaction with no monthly fee, while Stripe is 1.5% + €0.26 (myPOS, Stripe, 2026). With a Borica virtual POS the fee is set by your bank and varies. Here is how the main options compare:

Rates for standard local and European cards. Always check the provider's current price list. Sources: myPOS, Stripe, Borica, 2026.

A quick way to feel the cost: on a €50 order, myPOS takes about €0.75. That is small next to a refused cash-on-delivery parcel, which costs you the shipping both ways and a lost sale.

myPOS, Stripe, Borica or ePay - which to choose?

There is no single best one. The right choice depends on your size, your platform and where your customers are. Here is the short version of each:

For most Bulgarian small businesses, myPOS or Stripe next to cash on delivery is the simple, cheap, modern setup. Borica makes sense if your bank gives you a good rate.

What is a virtual POS and do I need a bank?

A virtual POS is simply the tool that lets your website charge a card, the online version of the card terminal in a shop. Whether you need a bank depends on the provider. With Borica you contract a virtual POS through your bank. With myPOS or Stripe you open an account directly and skip that step.

How does payment affect sales?

A lot, because checkout is where carts die. On average 70% of online carts are abandoned (Baymard, 2026). Two of the reasons are pure payment problems: 19% leave because they do not trust the site with their card, and 10% leave because there are not enough payment options.

The fix is not complicated. Show trusted card logos and the secure-payment badge, offer one-tap Apple Pay or Google Pay, and keep more than one option. A faster, cleaner checkout helps too - see our guide on what conversion is.

From our experience: ElectroBoys

This is not just theory for us. For ElectroBoys, an online store with over 5,000 electrical products, we connected eight external integrations - payments and couriers among them - directly through their APIs, without ready plugins. That gave clean control over the checkout: the right payment options, a paid-order status that updates by itself, and no slowdown from a stack of plugins.

The result is a fast store where paying is simple and orders are tracked without manual work. You can see the full project in our ElectroBoys case study.

Common mistakes to avoid

A few small slips quietly cost sales at the payment step. They are easy to fix once you spot them:

• Cash on delivery only. You lose every buyer who wants to pay by card. At least card plus cash on delivery is the safe floor.
• A checkout that looks unsafe. No card logos, no secure badge, an odd-looking form. 19% leave when they do not trust the site with their card (Baymard, 2026).
• No Apple Pay or Google Pay. On a phone, one-tap payment is much faster than typing a card number. Skipping it adds friction where most people now shop.
• Not reading the real fee. Look past the headline rate to the fixed fee and any monthly cost. On small orders the fixed part matters most.

Get payments right and the rest of the store works harder for you. If you want it set up and connected properly, that is exactly what we do in our e-commerce store development service.