Eftpos trials online payments with Coles, CommBank

Point of sale payments provider eftpos is shaping for a presence in online shopping with the trial of a new online payments solution in collaboration with Coles and the Commonwealth Bank.

Eftpos will provide its new online payments gateway, developed in partnership with a third-party provider, to the Coles online store for 350 customers to test the solution over the next few months.

The Commonwealth Bank has agreed to contribute around 70 of its customers for the pilot.

The payments gateway, akin to the payments screen users view when paying with PayPal, will allow consumers to make purchases without having to enter their credit card details, requiring only a username and password.

No card details are exchanged between consumer and merchant, the payments company said in a statement. The details are stored only with the relevant bank and the unnamed third party providing the gateway.

The Coles trial marks the first time eftpos has piloted the solution with a live website after several months of offline testing.

The company expects to wrap up the trial by the end of the year and bring a commercial product to market at some point in 2015.

The solution will only be available for Australian websites, a spokesperson said, and will be pitched as a cheaper, local alternative to rivals like PayPal.

The company declined to provide details on how much it will charge banks and retailers for the solution, but it is expected to be costed slightly higher than the current one cent each way fees eftpos charges for point-of-sale.