MOTO vs E-commerce Transactions: What’s the Difference?

If your business accepts card payments, it’s important to process transactions using the correct payment type.

Using the wrong transaction type can increase fraud risk, lead to unnecessary chargebacks, and may affect how your bank or payment provider views your account.

This guide explains when to use:

• MOTO (Mail Order / Telephone Order) transactions

• E-commerce transactions

Quick Rule of Thumb

What is a MOTO transaction?

A MOTO transaction happens when a customer gives you their card details directly and a staff member manually captures them on the customer’s behalf.

This usually happens:

• over the phone

• by email

• via mail order

• through other direct communication channels

Examples

• A customer phones your office and reads out their card details.

• Your reservations team manually captures card details provided via email.

What is an E-commerce transaction?

An E-commerce transaction happens when the customer enters their own card details online.

This includes:

• website checkouts

• mobile apps

• Peach Payments pay links

• hosted payment pages

Examples

• A customer pays on your website.

• A customer receives a Peach Payments payment link and enters their own card details.

• A customer pays through your mobile app.

A common mistake to avoid

Payment links are E-commerce transactions

Even if:

• you send the payment link manually

• the order was taken over the phone

• you created the invoice yourself

…the transaction is still considered E-commerce if the customer enters their own card details.

Why this matters

Using the correct transaction type helps:

• reduce fraud risk

• lower chargebacks and disputes

• improve transaction security

• support compliance with banking and card scheme requirements

E-commerce transactions can also make use of security features like 3D Secure authentication.

What you should review

We recommend checking:

• your website checkout flow

• payment links

• hosted payment pages

• call centre processes

• staff procedures for manual card capture

You should ensure that:

• MOTO is only used for genuine merchant-entered transactions

• customers never enter card details into MOTO/virtual terminal interfaces

• online customer-entered payments are processed as E-commerce

Need help?

If you are unsure whether a payment flow should be processed as MOTO or E-commerce, our team is happy to help.

Contact us at: [email protected]