Payments should be on the travel sector’s to-do list, argues Emily Whalley, senior travel specialist at payment orchestration platform BR-DGE
With the busy summer season underway, the sector is finally bouncing back. While the recent disruption to air travel cannot be overlooked, passengers are returning in droves after a turbulent few years for the industry.
The travel doom mongering remains in some corners, but the sector has demonstrated its resilience as international travel benefits from the lifting of pandemic-era restrictions.
At an industry conference in London last month, there was an air of optimism about the future of travel and the opportunities ahead. It feels as though travel is finally getting its mojo back.
As we look forward to the future, we must not forget the fundamentals of what makes any travel business a success.
Investing in the customer journey and experience is an area many firms pay attention to, but only a few are taking a holistic approach that benefits the business as a whole in promoting customer loyalty.
Recent research found 58% of consumers admit to abandoning a booking because the process is too complicated, highlighting why the customer journey is so important to get right.
An area of the customer journey where many have struggled in the past is payments. The payments world has exploded in recent years, revolutionising customers’ payment preferences across international markets.
From the rise of buy now pay later to digital wallets and crypto, it is hard to keep up with the number of ways to pay and who is providing these services.
As a result, travel sellers are struggling to get to grips with payments and that is evident in the fact that travel has one of the highest rates of any sector for failed transactions, with failed payments in travel being 60% more likely to occur than in online retail.
Furthermore, high transaction values and refund volumes make payments in the travel industry high risk with the potential to make or break firms due to unrelenting cash flow challenges, especially when disruption hits as in recent weeks.
For travel executives, the payments world can appear fragmented, but it is fundamental to any business’s success and risk management.
The good news for the industry is that the technology is now here to solve these problems.
Travel businesses can keep pace with rapidly changing customer preferences and improve their resilience through payment orchestration. This allows businesses to connect to the entire payments ecosystem through a single API connection, rather than over-relying on a single payments provider.
Further, a number of different payment acquirers can be used to spread risk and new alternative payment methods can be onboarded rapidly as consumer preferences continue to evolve.
Building a smooth and seamless end-to-end online payments system is a win for holidaymakers and it is a win for businesses looking to enhance their customer experience and improve their profitability via reduced overheads.
Payment orchestration ultimately reduces failed payments and ensures customers don’t need to phone up a travel provider to purchase the deal they are looking for, draining customer agents’ resources and adding friction in the customer journey.
Payments are a key part of the customer journey and essential to the success of the experience. Getting payments right can unlock growth opportunities, promote loyalty and improve the bottom line of any travel business.
As the sector looks to an exciting future, it is important not to forget the basics. Getting payments right will go far in creating improved customer journeys which will be essential to long-term growth.
Emily Whalley is senior travel specialist at payment orchestration platform BR-DGE