QR PH and Instapay Payments Nearly Triple on Xendit as Cash-On-Delivery Remains Strong

QR Ph and InstaPay payments grew 198% on Xendit’s platform over the 15 months to April 2026, but cash-on-delivery remains a substantial part of Philippine online shopping, according to the company’s Ecommerce Payments Momentum Report 2026.

Released on October 15 and produced with ecommerce data firm Cube, the report combines Xendit transaction data with a survey of 6,000 online shoppers across six Southeast Asian markets, including 1,000 Filipino respondents.

Its Philippine findings point to a market where shoppers are adding digital payment options while continuing to use cash. They also highlight a checkout problem: among Filipino respondents who abandoned an online purchase in the preceding three months, 41% cited the absence of their preferred payment method as the main reason.

Real-time payments grow from a smaller base

QR Ph and InstaPay account for about 13% of ecommerce value in Xendit’s data, following their combined 198% growth over the reporting period.

E-wallet payments on the platform grew 3% over the same 15 months. The report describes the Philippines as a wallet-first market, with GCash dominant, even as shoppers adopt other payment methods.

These figures describe activity recorded in Xendit’s data and should not be treated as a measurement of all Philippine ecommerce transactions.

In a separate survey of 25 business leaders across Southeast Asia, QR payments were most frequently identified as experiencing the strongest increase in customer demand. They were named by 32%, ahead of e-wallets and bank transfers at 20% each.

Cash-on-delivery retains a substantial share

Cash-on-delivery accounts for about 23% of Philippine ecommerce value in Xendit’s data, the highest share among the six markets covered. Vietnam followed at around 16%.

The shopper survey suggests that cash use is declining unevenly. Thirty-three percent of Filipino respondents said they use COD much less than a year earlier, while 12% said nothing would persuade them to switch.

Among shoppers willing to move to digital payments, discounts or cashback were the most common incentives, consistent with the regional findings.

The report forecasts that the Philippines will be the only market in its six-country coverage where COD still represents more than one-fifth of ecommerce value in 2027. That is a projection rather than an observed result.

Payment choice matters at checkout

For Philippine respondents who had abandoned a purchase, a missing payment option was the most common checkout frustration.

The same leading reason appeared in Indonesia, at 51%, and Malaysia, at 31%. Security concerns were the leading reason in Vietnam and Thailand, cited by 42% and 33%, respectively.

Nazim Ali, President of Xendit, said merchants need to account for differences in how customers pay.

“Filipino consumers have always been receptive to new technology and we see the same in digital payment, but they don’t all pay the same way. One wants an e-wallet, another scans a QR Ph code, another uses a card,” he said.

“So for a business, going digital isn’t about choosing one main payment method and steering everyone onto it. It’s knowing which methods your digitally savvy customers actually use, offering those, and making sure each one is secure. If people can’t find the option they use, or don’t trust the checkout, they leave.”

Security becomes a longer-term concern

Among the 25 regional business leaders surveyed, 8% ranked fraud among their top two payment concerns today, while 48% expected it to be among their top two concerns within five years.

Taken together, the findings describe several payment habits existing side by side: growing real-time payments, established e-wallet use and persistent demand for COD.

For merchants, the report’s central message is to understand which options their customers use and examine where payment availability or trust may be interrupting a purchase.