1. Comparing the mainstream payment methods
1. Business-to-business cash transfer
How it works: an initiated transfer from a bank counter or corporate online banking, or a payment through a bank’s fund-splitting system with a receipt.
Limits: large transfers are possible. Anything above RMB 50,000 goes through the PBOC’s large-value payment system, which doesn’t run on weekends and holidays, and can be affected accordingly (on weekdays it runs from 20:30 the previous evening through 17:15 the same day).
Time to arrive: usually settles promptly.
How the platform confirms receipt: finance staff can check the bank account manually, match a unique code in the remittance memo back to the order automatically, or, if it goes through a bank fund-splitting system, get near-real-time confirmation.
2. Gateway payment
The customer is sent to a unified checkout page hosted by a third-party payment company or bank, then redirected to their bank’s own online banking to pay.
Limits: depend on the card type and its security tier.
Bank coverage: depends on how many banks the checkout provider has partnered with.
3. Aggregated / QR code payment
There are two flows: customer-scans (the shopper’s app opens the camera and scans the merchant’s QR code) and merchant-scans (the shopper shows their payment code for the merchant to scan). E-commerce web pages use the customer-scans flow.
A QR code from an aggregated payment provider usually supports several payment methods at once (WeChat, Alipay, etc.), which makes integration easier for the merchant.
A single-channel code from one payment company — a WeChat or Alipay collection code, say — only works with that one app, but the tradeoff is a more stable, better experience.
4. Third-party app payment
This launches a third-party payment app directly. The top three in China are WeChat Pay, Alipay, and UnionPay QuickPass. WeChat has broad coverage offline; Alipay leans on the Taobao ecosystem and keeps pushing tap-to-pay innovations to hold its ground against WeChat; QuickPass, as the “national team” option, has decent reach too, helped by consumption subsidies and its one-stop bank card management. Others — JD Pay, LianLian Pay, and so on — trail the top three in scale but hold their own advantages in specific scenarios.
Bank coverage: essentially complete, and all support balance and credit-based payment. WeChat currently focuses on personal payments and doesn’t support binding a corporate account; Alipay lets you create a business account and pay against it.
5. Mobile quick pay (H5)
This binds a bank card through a payment channel’s H5 page. It’s not used much these days — most major payment companies offer this form, but H5 pages carry more security risk than an in-app flow, and the experience is worse (users have to log in repeatedly).
6. Card-based quick pay
The platform integrates with a payment company; once a user binds their card on the platform, they can just pick a card to pay.
Some channels support password-free payment. That shifts some risk-control responsibility onto the platform, but the tradeoff is a smoother, faster payment experience.
Bank coverage: depends on how many banks the provider has partnered with.
7. Wallet balance payment
This means acquiring a payment license, or partnering with a third-party payment company, to offer a wallet feature that lets users top up and pay from balance.
The platform needs risk controls around top-ups, payments, and withdrawals. This is good for the user experience and helps build stickiness.
8. Buy-now-pay-later credit lines
Well-known examples include Huabei, JD Baitiao, and Meituan Yuefu. A financial institution extends the user a credit line to pay with, and for consumer users, the platform often subsidizes interest for the first month. This can meaningfully boost user stickiness — some B2B clients in particular care a lot about cash flow, and offering payment terms builds a tighter working relationship — but it also demands solid credit assessment and risk control.
9. Monthly settlement (running a tab)
A merchant lets a specific customer buy on credit or sign a monthly settlement agreement, keeps its own ledger, and asks the customer to settle up periodically. If a platform runs its own retail business, it may build features for this too. These transactions aren’t backed by any third-party guarantee and don’t necessarily go through the platform at all — it’s typically used between a merchant and a customer they know well and work with closely.
10. Digital RMB
Functionally equivalent to cash. It’s available today through payment apps and QR code scanning, though usage is still fairly low.
11. Pay-on-behalf
The buyer creates an order and shares a pay-on-behalf checkout link with someone else to pay. The payment methods offered on that shared checkout page need to account for the payer’s identity, device environment, and similar factors.
12. Buy now, pay later (BNPL)
A low credit bar, typically with small limits that don’t get reported to the PBOC’s credit system. The platform guarantees the transaction and charges the merchant a service fee; on the consumer side, users typically need to set up direct debit from a bound bank card. My own take is that this lowers the friction of the purchase decision without feeling as heavy as a credit product like Huabei.