The new standard will also face competition from the Amazons and PayPals of the world, as well as from the credit card networks, all of which want to be the primary destination for payments, rather than just one option.

But payment analysts are hopeful about the new effort because it will not require consumers or merchants to use a new method of payment. Instead it will be equally open to any existing card or payment app, and it will channel them into a single place that most consumers already use — the web browser — where everything can be stored and used.

“Instead of simplifying the world, we have been fragmenting it into a million apps,” said Eric Shea, a payments consultant at Kurt Salmon Digital. “If we can get back to that single integrated solution that everyone has on their phone and their desktop, that is the way to move forward and get adoption.”

Dave Birch, a consultant who has been working on electronic payments for over two decades, said the web browser stood the best chance of providing a unified and more secure portal for payments.

“There’s a convergence going on,” said Mr. Birch, who currently works for Consult Hyperion. “In the future you will have one experience — it won’t matter if you are at the store or on the phone. It will pop up on your phone, you will put your thumb on it and you will be done.”

The W3C project represents a challenge to PayPal and Amazon, the current giants of online payments. Both have gained business and fees with their more streamlined checkout processes.

Neither company has participated in the current W3C effort and they are likely to continue to provide an alternative to customers who don’t want to enter their details into their browsers.