A local payment method is a single instrument within local payments: a way of paying that is widely used in one country or region but little known outside it. The main entry describes the category as a whole; the term local payment method, often shortened to LPM, is what payment providers use when listing the individual options a merchant can switch on for each market.
Examples include iDEAL in the Netherlands, Pix and the Boleto in Brazil, and cash payment at OXXO stores in Mexico. They take several forms: bank transfer and redirect schemes, mobile wallets, cash vouchers, pay-later services and a domestic card scheme that works only inside its home market.
The term overlaps with alternative payment methods, which covers anything other than the international card brands. Not every alternative method is local, since some wallets operate worldwide, and a national card scheme is local without being an alternative to cards. For merchants selling across borders the practical point is the same: offering the methods shoppers in each country already use tends to raise the share of checkouts that end in a completed payment.