Mobile payments platform Square has introduced APIs to extend its reach into ecommerce, putting it into contest with the likes of Braintree and Stripe.

SME mobile payments platform Square has introduced application programming interfaces (APIs) for ecommerce and point-of-sale in Australia.

The collection of APIs – split into two products, Square API for ecommerce and Square API for point-of-sale – aims to enable users to integrate point-of-sale or ecommerce solutions seamlessly with Square for secure payment acceptance.

“It’s more common than ever for businesses of any size to sell their products or services online and in-person, so having a fully integrated omni-channel system gives them a powerful advantage,” says Square’s Australian country manager Ben Pfisterer.

Square claims this move makes it the first payments company in Australia to own all three of in-store, mobile and online payments. A key marketing message for the company is that this means businesses can manage all online and offline payments for the entire business in one dashboard.

Businesses will be able to accept payments through any channel and gain a single, holistic view of their business, to reduce complexity of having to navigate numerous disparate systems.

Square integrates with website building companies including BigCommerce, Weebly, Ecwid, WooCommerce, Magento and Wix, enabling the use of pre-existing ecommerce shopfronts while accepting the Square gateway. Online and point-of-sale sales will show in a Square Dashboard.

Integrating Square into platforms will be free, with online payments accepted using the Square API for ecommerce charged at 2.2% per transaction for Visa, MasterCard and Amex. In-person payments using Square hardware via apps integrated with the API for point-of-sale incur a 1.9% charge.

The move into ecommerce brings Square further into competition with PayPal, which has recently introduced hardware for mobile payments.

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Related: Last year, Australia became the first market outside the US to have access to Square’s contactless chip card reader »