A payment link is a single-use checkout page you can send to a customer in a message, so they can pay without going through your store’s normal checkout.

Where it beats a checkout page

A normal checkout works when the customer already knows exactly what they want and it
is already priced on your site. Plenty of real sales are not like that.

  • A caterer quoting 45 sets with two dietary swaps and a delivery slot.
  • A clinic taking a deposit to hold an appointment.
  • A store selling the last unit of something that is not listed.
  • A supplier invoicing a trade price that is not public.
  • A customer who has been talking to you on Instagram for ten minutes and is ready
    now.

In each case the price was agreed in the conversation. Sending the customer away to
find and configure the same thing on a website adds a step and a chance to abandon. The
documented average cart abandonment rate across published studies was 70.22% as of
September 2025 (Baymard
Institute). A link sent into a live conversation does not join that queue.

The deposit case, specifically

For appointment businesses the payment link does a second job. It converts intent into
commitment. A customer who has paid 20% to hold Friday at 3pm turns up far more reliably
than one who said “yes Friday sounds good”. The deposit is less about cash flow than
about the no-show rate.

Four things to check before you use one

  1. Who holds the money. Settlement should go to your own account with
    your payment provider. A tool that sits between you and your funds is a risk you do not
    need. AeroChat never sees card numbers and never holds your funds. Money settles directly
    into your Airwallex balance.
  2. How the payment is confirmed. Confirmation needs to reach your systems
    reliably, not depend on the customer telling you. AeroChat confirms every payment twice,
    once when the Airwallex webhook fires and again when the customer lands on the
    confirmation page.
  3. What happens after payment. A paid link that does not create an order,
    notify fulfilment or trigger delivery has moved the work rather than removed it.
  4. Expiry and reuse. A link that works forever will eventually be used
    twice, or shared.

What it does not solve

A payment link takes money. It does not pick the product, hold stock, or get the item
to the customer. For a sale to finish inside a conversation you need a catalogue to choose
from and a delivery step at the other end. The link is one of four pieces. See
conversational commerce.

Related terms

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