How do I accept UPI and card payments on my website in India?

Choose a payment gateway

• Razorpay, PayU and Cashfree are widely used Indian gateways that support UPI, debit and credit cards, net banking and wallets.
• Stripe's onboarding for Indian businesses has been restricted, so check its current status before planning around it.
• Shopify Payments has not been available for stores based in India, so Indian Shopify stores normally use a third-party gateway; check Shopify's current list of supported countries.
• Compare fees, settlement time, international card support and the quality of the plugin for your platform.

Get your account approved

1. 1Create an account on the gateway's website using your business details.
2. 2Submit KYC documents, typically business PAN, bank account details and business registration or GST details, as the gateway requests.
3. 3Make sure your website shows contact details, terms, privacy policy, and refund and cancellation policies, since gateways usually review these before approval.
4. 4Wait for approval and note your API keys from the gateway dashboard.

Connect it to your website

• WordPress with WooCommerce: install the gateway's official plugin, paste your API keys in the WooCommerce payment settings, and enable it.
• Shopify: add the gateway from the payments settings or the Shopify App Store, then activate it.
• Wix and Squarespace: check which Indian gateways they currently support in their payment settings, as options differ by country.
• Custom sites: a developer integrates the gateway's checkout and verifies payments on your server using webhooks, so orders are only confirmed when payment actually succeeds.

Test, then go live

Use test mode to run successful, failed and cancelled payments, and check that order emails, stock and invoices behave correctly in each case. If you are GST registered, make sure customers receive a proper GST invoice, and note that gateway fees themselves attract GST.