1st August, 2022
Point-of-sale (POS) financing services have grown appreciably since the onset of COVID-19 and financial technology (fintech) specialists have taken the lead in growing the buy now pay later (BNPL) pie.
BNPL as an offering is evolving in the travel sector. Airlines considered it as an alternative form of payment to start-off. And gradually, from being evaluated mainly by the payments team, the same has now stretched to marketing and revenue management as well.
“We are talking to executives who are making decisions (in an airline or other entities),” said Uplift’s Commercial VP, Chris Stacey, who added that BNPL is playing its part in driving conversions and boosting the average order value of a transaction.
Airlines and other travel merchants are keen on leveraging this tool for a variety of reasons.
One of them being the fact that BNPL isn’t just being availed by consumers with a relatively low credit score. Also, today BNPL specialists are looking at the entire booking funnel, and even working on ways to be a part of the shoppers’ lives (for example, a loyalty app by a BNPL company).
Stacey, who attended the recently held ATPS in London, spoke about few key aspects:
- Counting on data: In terms of how airlines can make the most of data that is there with the RM team, and then a specialist like Uplift, which focuses on machine learning and has its algorithms, Stacey said the team sees it as convergence of two sets of data. “From the beginning the idea is to work out the best product offering,” he said. “We dwell on what’s working in various verticals, where the opportunity is…we look at our data and blend it with their (airlines’) revenue data. Where customers are flying out, where they clicked but didn’t act…so how to improve on that? With machine learning and our data, our partners do work out the most effective RM strategy,” explained Stacey.
- Cross-functional efficacy paving way for an apt offering for a traveller: Uplift’s offering is purpose-built for travel, as Stacey pointed out, in order to sell travel, integration with travel providers is the key, as travel is different from, say shopping for furniture. “Our most successful campaigns have both RM and marketing teams involved in what we are doing,” he said. “Our offering is multi-tiered (based on financing options, using them as tools, knowing exactly how much a customer can spend etc.).” Uplift has a pre-qualification tool that the company asserts paves way for swelling of order value, buying of ancillaries etc.
- Taking care of fraud: There are cases where fraudsters are involved. They can sign up for a new account with a BNPL provider with stolen credentials or target accounts belonging to legitimate customers. Uplift has worked on a mechanism for taking care of fraud, and also work with the airline’s fraud team. Fraud is an issue for every one (be it for a BNPL entity or a travel merchant), but it is better to fight it together, with a collaborative approach, said Stacey.
By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events
