A free service to promote online shopping in a secure environment has been launched.

Securicor has set up an online shopping service, SafeDoor, which aims to protect people from fraud and encourage potential internet shoppers to part with their cash.

The SafeDoor system requires people to submit credit details just once, either through an online form or telephone call.

After people have registered they can shop online without having to reveal their credit card or personal details to retailers signed up to the scheme.

To pay for goods at an online shop, the user clicks on the ordering option and SafeDoor arranges delivery and payment on the customer's behalf while keeping financial information confidential.

Securicor eSolutuions chief operating officer, Jenny Aukim from Horsham, said: "SafeDoor represents a great opportunity for Sussex, both for shoppers who can now shop safely online and for Sussex businesses who want to improve customer confidence in online retailing.

"We conducted extensive consumer research before formulating SafeDoor and discovered an astonishing number of people were nervous about shopping online due to fears of disclosing credit card details.

"This service has been specifically designed to take away that fear factor and make online shopping safer.

"Securicor is in a unique position to help millions of people shopping online by delivering a service which at last creates online confidence. The result for the consumer is a secure online shopping environment, free from abuse of personal or credit card details, uninvited mailshots or spam emails."

Securicor developed the system following Mori research. This showed 71 per cent of the estimated 17 million people using the Internet in the UK have not been choosing to shop online.

The main reason for this reluctance was attributed to the belief parting with credit card information is a high risk, with 79 per cent of users having admitted to being "very concerned" about the unauthorised use of a credit cards for online transactions SafeDoor has estimated 40 retailers will sign up to the service by the end of March, with around 100 joining the scheme during 2001.