Google Inc. opened its Checkout online payment processing service to retailers in the U.K. on Friday, the first time it has been available to businesses outside the U.S.
Checkout stores shoppers’ personal details such as shipping address and credit card number, allowing them to make online purchases with participating retailers simply by entering their Google user name and password. Google then passes on to the retailer the information necessary to complete the transaction.
The company is also localizing Checkout for other countries, a spokesman for Google in Europe said, although it is not saying yet where the service will be offered next. Expanding the service will put it in greater competition with eBay Inc.’s PayPal, which offers merchants in several countries a similar payment processing service called Website Payments.
Retailers can embed Checkout payment buttons in their Web sites or even in online advertising placed through Google’s AdWords platform, bringing potential customers one step closer to purchase. Google also allows retailers to offset some of their AdWords spend against Checkout transaction fees.
Google opened the Checkout service to U.S. retailers and shoppers in June 2006, and later gave the retailers the option to ship to customers in other countries. Buyers in 145 countries can access the service, Google’s Web site said Friday.
Allowing U.K. retailers to use Checkout was no simple matter, a Google spokesman in London said.
“From a technical perspective, things are handled differently here, things as mundane as how taxes are calculated, or how addresses are formatted,” he said.
Ebuyer (UK) Ltd. of Howden, England, a seller of consumer electronics products, is one of the first U.K. retailers to use the service. (Google’s Web site has a full list of U.K. retailers using Checkout.)
On Friday, visitors to Ebuyer’s Web site clicking on buttons to buy were led to a page sporting a prominent Google Checkout button, with an offer of a