Product
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8 min read
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July 1, 2026
Accepting payments as a small business can be a struggle if you don’t have an e-commerce checkout set up. In the time it takes to exchange bank details, confirm payment amounts, and share delivery addresses, your customer might have already moved on.
What you want is a faster, easier way to get paid from the channels that you already use – be it WhatsApp or Instagram DMs – without having to share bank details over the phone.
Payment links solve this problem by letting you create and share payment links right into your customers’ DMs. This reduces friction, which means fewer drop-offs.
In this article, we’ll explain how payment links work and how you can implement the tool into your payment flow.
We’ll also introduce you to Ziina’s Payment Links solution, which allows businesses to create and share customizable links within minutes.
We’ll cover:
Think of a payment link (sometimes called Pay by Link) as a checkout page you can send anywhere.
Instead of asking customers to transfer money manually or sending them to a website, you can just drop a payment link right in the chat, and that’s it – your customer pays in a few clicks.
Here’s how it works:
And here’s how it works with Ziina:
| If you’re struggling with… | Payment links enable you to… |
|---|---|
Customers losing interest while you exchange bank details, confirm amounts, and sort out payment information… | Send a link directly in the chat. Customers can quickly pay via a smooth checkout. |
A disconnected payment experience because you’re confirming a sale on Instagram or WhatsApp, then sending an invoice via email… | Redirect the customer directly to a customized and branded checkout, which makes payments feel more professional and connected to the sale. |
Customers feeling uncomfortable sending their address and payment details over chat messages… | Let customers add their address and payment details into a secure checkout. |
Accepting payments from customers who want to pay in currencies other than AED… | Accept payments in multiple currencies while receiving settlements in AED, without creating any new foreign currency accounts. |
Waiting for bank transfers to arrive and wondering if a customer has already paid… | Receive real-time payment notifications so you know when a payment has been completed. |
For businesses in the UAE, offering Pay by Link can be useful in several everyday situations:
Ziina is a payment platform licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE that helps small and medium-sized businesses securely send and receive funds.
With our Payment Links feature, you can start accepting payments quickly, without building a whole website from scratch.
Here’s what you can do when you partner with Ziina:
With Ziina, you can create payment links and share them directly through WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, or SMS.
Even better, you can do it without leaving the conversation. ZiiBoard lets you generate and send payment links straight from the keyboard on your phone.
Here’s how it works:
The payment link is automatically generated and pasted into the conversation.
From there, customers click the link, enter their details, and pay using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or major credit and debit cards (such as Visa, Mastercard, and Amex). They don’t need a Ziina account to make a payment.
You can reuse the same ZiiLink across multiple channels, track every sale in the Ziina app, and accept payments in up to 10 currencies.
Once your multi-currency link is live, customers can pay you – for links generated from the app, they get to choose their currency – and all settlements to your Ziina wallet will be processed in AED at Visa’s exchange rate.
You can also customize your checkout by adding your brand and logo. Feel free to toggle on and off different features:
Getting paid is one thing. Accessing your money quickly is another. We built Ziina to make both simple.
Some businesses can get started with just an Emirates ID, while others may need to submit some additional documentation for business verification in order to access higher limits.
Overall, you can start accepting payments very quickly – the wellness and mobility studio Stretch It Out, for example, went live with Ziina in just 48 hours.
“The payment links are a game changer. I just type the amount, send a link through WhatsApp, and the payment comes through. I don’t have to jump through a complicated process. The interface is really intuitive”
When a customer completes a payment through your link, the funds will be transferred into your Ziina digital wallet. From there, you can spend on business expenses using the Ziina card, which can be used anywhere that Apple Pay, Google Pay, or contactless payments are accepted.
Alternatively, you could cash out your funds to your linked bank account, which takes 1–2 business days, though funds often settle within 24 hours (subject to bank processing times). For amounts over 25,000 AED, your funds will take approximately 3 - 5 business days to settle.
Instant cashouts are available for eligible users, subject to terms and conditions.
Plus, there are no subscriptions, opening charges, or hidden fees; we simply charge 2.6% + 1 AED per transaction, plus 1.5% to process international cards (to view current standard pricing terms, see Ziina’s pricing page).
Payment links are just one part of the picture. Ziina gives you a unified payment platform for both online and in-person sales.
This means you can also accept payments via:
For you, Ziina means one dashboard to track all your sales. For your customers, it means more ways to pay.
