Merchant FAQs

By definition, purchase on invoice means that consumers do not pay for the ordered products immediately but later on invoice. The invoice is sent to them by email, by post or with the parcel. While purchase on invoice is only moderately popular in many European countries, it’s the most popular payment method in Switzerland.

Confidence and time! Your customer can place an order or purchase on invoice with complete confidence, using a payment method that allows them to receive and check their order before they pay for it. With Swissbilling, the consumer can choose to pay the invoice immediately or by instalments, in several monthly payments. Whichever option they choose, they benefit from very advantageous payment terms.

More sales, fast payment, no risks and no additional administration! Payment on invoice allows you to increase your sales, the amount of your “average basket” and your conversion rate, without risk on debtors and without additional work.

How does purchasing on invoice help to increase sales?

Firstly, an invoice is a payment method that customers are used to and find reassuring: they can “see” the order before they pay for it and will feel more comfortable making a decision. Secondly, payment on invoice gives them more time to pay for their order without having to use their credit card (which may not have a high enough limit). Finally, for some customers, paying on invoice is simply more reassuring, with no risk of fraud and no need to share their card number. We assume the entire risk of default and also take care of debtor management.

It’s up to you whether your customer contributes to invoicing charges or whether you cover them yourself. In any case, the costs are low.

Swissbilling is a payment option that exists for both online retailers and traditional shops. The way it works is simple:

1.    Your customer selects the Swissbilling invoice payment option.

2.    The order is immediately accepted or rejected by our system.

3.    If the order is accepted, your customer receives an invoice from us in the days following the delivery, by post or by email as they prefer; in some cases, depending on what we have agreed with you, your customer can settle the invoice in several monthly payments.

4.    We pay you the full price of the order within the agreed number of days (from 2 days after the order has been shipped), whether your customer has chosen to pay in one or more instalments. We carry all the risk.

It doesn’t have any impact on you: if your customers fail to pay and you have signed up to our payment guarantee, we will settle the order within the agreed time frame. If your customer fails to pay the amount of the order despite our usual reminders, we pass the invoice on to our debt collection partner. In accordance with our contractual terms, we bear the default risk on debtors and will not ask you to refund us for the unpaid amount.

When purchasing on account with Swissbilling, the consumer or new customer only needs to enter the data that is also requested when placing a traditional order.

You do not need a user account that you have to log in to separately to purchase on invoice, nor do you need a confidential card number. Note that for legal reasons, however, the customer must have a valid address in Switzerland and be at least 18 years old to use our payment solution.

Swissbilling offers public and private organizations and companies a set of solutions to enable them to outsource all or part of their billing process, with or without debtor financing (factoring). These “Bills-to-Cash” solutions are grouped in 5 modules that can be chosen separately:

Module #1 Billing engine:
invoicing software

Module #2 Processing:
printing and mailing, address management, credit notes, customer supports, reminders and debt collection process.

Module #3 Factoring

Module #4 Guarantee:
(solvency check and non-payment guarantee)

Module #5 Debt collection