13th November 2023
It is imperative for merchants, including ones from the travel industry, to make payments an integrated part of the user experience. If the objective is to make a shopper do less work in terms of clicking or filling up personal details, then progress is being made.
One area of focus is embedded payments. It allows travel shoppers to wrap up their transactions without parting with the platform’s website or mobile app, enabling a fitting checkout experience. It is time to capitalize on such developments, and in doing so, travel merchants can ensure they also claim their place in the future of commerce and finance as the world becomes universally digital.
Being responsive to implications
At the same time, companies like Worldline acknowledge that embedded payments and automated processes bring social and economic implications.
For instance, considering that autonomous payments are related to contextual awareness, the issue of data privacy can’t be ignored.

Other than data security, privacy, and control issues regarding fractional data use and ownership, as PwC states, other delicate implications that need to be considered with embedded finance are interoperability (risks associated with the connection and communication between fundamental components), complex partnerships, and exponential increase in risk transfer within complex embedded finance ecosystems. Whenever payment is done in an automated manner, the travel merchant must delve into aspects like data protection regulations (depending upon the territory), and trust (accountability related to the device being used etc.). Overall, evaluate systems and processes involved to shield financial transactions from illegal access, data breaches, and fraud.
“While there are many benefits to invisible payments, such as those seen regarding sustainability and business costs, autonomous payments, at this moment, should be considered an effective, highly efficient and seamless alternative payment option, albeit a costly investment. However, this view will likely change as uptake increases and integration improves,” says Minh Le, Worldline.
Payment security measures such as encryption, authentication, tokenisation and industry standards such as PCI DSS must be in place.
How are you gearing up for security in payments going forward?
By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events