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Smooth digital payment experience
For travel companies serving customers from around the world one of the biggest opportunities to simplify the payment experience is multi-currency pricing i.e., presenting the price of the offer in the traveler’s native currency.
This helps travelers easily understand the price without needing to leave the travel company’s website to perform a currency conversion. In the globally competitive travel industry, such details matter. Prior Outpayce research with 5,000 travelers has confirmed that 89% of travelers would be more likely to choose one airline over another if given the option to pay in their preferred currency.
It also means the travel company, rather than the traveler’s bank, controls the resulting foreign exchange transaction. This may sound onerous, but it helps the merchant specify foreign exchange rates and charges to increase transparency for travelers. Assuming control over the foreign exchange conversion also offers opportunities for travel merchants to gain incremental revenue for administering the service.
Travelers value such transparency, and the same prior study highlighted that they often face opaque charges today, with 14% of passengers confirming they’ve paid more than 10% of a flight’s cost in hidden foreign exchange charges. Travelers begin to notice such fees when they approach 3% of a flight’s total cost and large numbers abandon their purchase if the foreign exchange fee breaches the psychologically important 5% threshold.
%
of travelers would be more likely to choose one airline over another if given the option to pay in their preferred currency
%
of passengers paid more than 10% of a flight’s cost in hidden foreign exchange charges
Perhaps that’s why 43% of payments leaders from our survey said their company already presents pricing in the traveler’s native currency today. A further 36% said they were planning to do so in the near future. Only 9% said they have no plans to present prices in the traveler’s native currency.
%
say their company already presents pricing in the traveler’s native currency
%
are planning to present pricing in the traveler’s native currency in the near future
%
have no plans to present prices in the traveler’s native currency
Of course, the ultimate objective for payments professionals seeking to deliver a smooth payment experience is omnichannel personalization. Digital native firms understand the consumer’s preferred payment method based on prior interactions, even when the customer shops across different channels like mobile, web or the call center.
The Travel Technology Investment Trends survey asked travel payments leaders how close their organizations are to achieving omni-channel personalization of their payments experience by assigning a rating between one and five stars. Five stars signaled they’ve already achieved it.
Just 4% of respondents assigned their organization the full five star rating, with a weighted average across all respondents of 2.7 stars out of five. For an industry focused on achieving digital retailing excellence, this result suggests significant work is required to better align data and customer experience programs with payments capabilities.
The travel industry recognizes the need to personalize the offers it makes and the service it provides. These principles underpin efforts by airlines to become modern retailers. The same logic applies to accepting payments. Travelers today expect their travel merchant to remember their preferred method, to keep it on file, and for the payment to be ‘invisible’.”
Jean-Christophe Lacour
SVP, Global Head of Products and Delivery
Outpayce from Amadeus
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