Payment Strategy Tips for OTA’s & Travel Agencies – Part 2
Concluding a two part series, Masha Cilliers, Principal Consultant of Payment Options Ltd. looks at payments best practice for OTA’s & Travel Agencies with insightful tips and ideas to improve efficiency and profitability:
Tip 6 Harmonise the customer channels
• Online, mobile, tablet, bricks and mortar – the experience should be relevant to the channel but consistent to the airline’s or travel agency’s brand and feel
• Utilise data (from fraud management, support and other customer facing teams and systems) to understand what customers do via each channel and concentrate on offering these well
• Some payments just don’t make sense on mobile
FOCUS ON: Each channel providing what is relevant not merely mirroring each other
Tip 7 Keep payment page simple
• It is tempting to add marketing or other materials, but resist this and keep the checkout as blank as possible
• Definitely fit on one page and use the width to avoid scrolling for smaller screens
• Use links, question marks of hover bubbles to provide easy to understand information
• Don’t ask unnecessary questions (e.g. card type)
FOCUS ON: Simplicity, ease of understanding and using the space effectively
Tip 8 Localise payment pages
• That doesn’t mean purely translating. The positioning, the spacing, the logos need to reflect what is customary in the given market
• Understand local regulations, legal and tax requirements and incorporate those into the pages and the T&Cs
• Look at domestic competition and other retailers to understand customer expectations of your site
FOCUS ON: Understanding that localisation is a process not just a translation tool
Tip 9 Optimise mobile checkout
• Part of the multichannel offering but getting more and more important
• Ensure that the pages are designed for mobile: less is more, ease of scrolling or bars/headings
• Not all payments will fit (e.g. DD/ACH), consider wallets and tokenising cards
FOCUS ON: Size and usability over representing everything that you can offer on a small screen
Tip 10 Prioritise payment methods
• More is definitely not better in travel and many other sectors (exception being gaming)
• Understand what is necessary to keep customers coming and provide it
• But also prioritise options based on your ease of processing, costs, lower chargebacks – don’t be worried about putting your needs first
FOCUS ON: Your priorities and needs but ensure that the customer can get any option that is relevant for the market and the transaction
Masha Cilliers is founder and Principal Consultant at Payment Options, and Associate at Consult Hyperion, London. She is a senior professional with 20 years of experience in Payments, Fraud Management, eCommere, M-Commerce and other digital consumer payments and related services.
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