V.me, Visa's digital wallet, has gone live in Australia with a range of major online retailers. The digital wallet can be used for online purchases from these merchants via PCs, laptops or mobile devices.

The V.me launch follows MasterCard's launch of its MasterPass digital wallet in Australia. MasterCard said in November that Commonwealth Bank of Australia was the first Australian bank to issue MasterPass a digital wallet.

Consumers can upload into V.me any Visa, MasterCard or American Express card from every financial institution in Australia, Visa said. They then sign on to V.me with a single username and password in order to pay online with these cards.

A survey of 1,000 Australian consumers conducted by Visa in 2013 for The Visa Online Shopping Study found that, in the lead-up to Christmas 2013, 43 percent of Australian 18- to 29-year-olds and 37 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds prefer to shop online rather than go into stores.

The research also found that more Australian men (35 percent) than women (28 percent) generally prefer shopping online and that many more consumers expect to do more online shopping in the future than they currently do.

V.me will become available across more merchants in Australia in 2014. In November, Visa launched V.me in the UK, France, Spain and Poland.

Learn more about mobile/digital wallets.