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Online marketplace DoneDeal has struck a deal with Stripe to make all sales and purchases on its site cashless and contact-free for the first time.

Until now, users of the Wexford-based DoneDeal site – particularly popular for car shoppers – could list goods for sale online. But the sales themselves often required face-to-face cash handovers or bank transfers.

“Before we added the Stripe feature, DoneDeal did not facilitate buyers paying sellers directly on our marketplace,” said Rob Hume, general manager of DoneDeal.

“Users would arrange payment for items outside the platform, often taking out cash to bring to a transaction.”

This made little sense in a Covid-19 era that places a premium on selling remotely and avoiding the physical handling of banknotes, he said.

“Cashless payments have become a more and more important part of our lives – especially in light of coronavirus,” he said. “DoneDeal wanted to offer an easy, instant, safe option for sellers to set up online payments through the platform. Stripe provided the perfect solution to this.

“Sellers who before may have been hesitant or unsure as to how to sell on DoneDeal without cash payment will now find it a lot easier to transact safely and 100pc online.”

As part of pilot trials, about 250 sellers on the site already have switched to taking payments by Stripe, the e-commerce platform founded in 2010 by Tipperary brothers Patrick and John Collison.

The billionaires’ firm specialises in helping clients like DoneDeal to build online billing and payment platforms into their own websites and apps.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with one of Ireland’s most prominent internet brands to enable their users to transact fully online,” said Eileen O’Mara, head of EMEA at Stripe. “This is a great example of a successful, scaled company adapting quickly to a rapidly changing environment.”

DoneDeal said users who found the Stripe option most effective during trials were firms selling gym equipment, garden furniture, machinery and tools, car parts and building materials.

DoneDeal was founded in Wexford in May 2005 by Fred and Geraldine Karlsson. Its site currently has about 380,000 live ads, including for 70,000 cars.

The firm says sellers can sign up to the Stripe platform via their MyDoneDeal accounts.

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