Offering enhanced security, online payment service portal, PayPal, announced, on Wednesday, the launch of its expanded Seller Protection policy for merchants in Asia Pacific. The policy, which will become operational on Oct 11, 2013, helps protect merchants from fraudulent online transaction and cases where items are not received by buyers. It would enable merchants to seek out growth opportunities in new markets. The company said, Oct onwards, Seller Protection will be available to PayPal merchants in India, Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

For Australian companies that sell products online, the policy means enhanced security, aimed at making them confident to accept online payments.

PayPal's Australian managing director Jeff Clementz was quoted saying, "the next big evolution" is to "help retailers to scale their businesses online and on mobile by protecting them" against fraudulent activity.

"We realise that businesses are actually the biggest target for fraud," he said.

With the implementation of its Seller Protection, PayPal is reducing the liability for fraud for millions of merchants fuelling the Asia Pacific economy.

The company in its release said, businesses currently selling on the web are forced to dedicate a huge amount of time and money to tackling fraudulent transactions, while many offline companies lack the confidence to sell online due to fear of fraud, technical and legal complications.

For long, PayPal's Australian strategy has been to focus on small business. It had expanded cashless and card-less buying capability to more than 2500 physical locations across the country. This included 2000 restaurants through its partnership with the EatNow ordering site.

Considering the launch of its Seller Protection policy, the company's focus in 2014 will be to work with big retailers.

"When we are ready we will announce some additional value propositions that will really enhance the experience of buying in those major stores," Clementz said.

Online businesses can benefit from Seller Protection for no extra cost and with no need to subscribe provided they meet the eligibility criteria.

In its statement, PayPal said, it understands the pain points that merchants face, particularly, when selling beyond their own borders. It said the company partners with merchants to help them adopt best practices at every stage in the sales cycle including customer service, shipping and checkout.

PayPal hopes the policy will empower online businesses to capitalize on the multi-billion-dollar cross-border trade opportunity in Asia's fast growing economies.