13th March, 2023
Airlines have had to work simultaneously on several payment-related aspects over the last couple of years as they continuously contemplate and gear up for trends in B2C ecommerce.
Right from their risk strategy to boosting acceptance rate and cutting down on fraud, a lot has evolved since the onset of the COVID pandemic three years ago. The way consumers pay can’t be changed in a short span, but this notion took a beating as consumers chose to pay in new ways to support their digital customer journeys. Today a travel merchant has to be agile to cater to a wide gamut of alternative payment methods, around 400 in total.
As Edgar, Dunn & Company points out, merchants have to simplify digital transaction mechanisms and also evaluate #cybersecurity and consumer protection. So how to keep up with travel shoppers who are more digital, more mobile-centric and looking for instant outcomes and the same time expect frictionless and secure transactions?
This year’s #ATPS2023, starting tomorrow in London, UK, is set to feature many interesting discussions. Some of these are:
- How Iberia’s risk strategy pivoted to a post-Covid market (featuring Carmen Gavilán, Alfredo García Grande and Erik Knoester). How to count on data and people to reduce manual work and let more legitimate transactions go through?
- Changing nature of fraud and impact on the travel industry (featuring Jason Lane-Sellers). Evaluate what comprises a top-notch customer experience. In shopping online, for how long one is going to wait for a card to be processed or for a confirmation email to not think a merchant’s digital asset isn’t authentic? How to gear up for network fraud in a borderless society? How to go about travel-related fraud challenges such as ATO (account takeover), synthetic ID, smishing/ phishing etc.? Jason asserts, “It is key to be able to effectively authenticate the user and transaction.”
- Payment orchestration and showing the payment option that works best for all, including travel shoppers (featuring Keli Sandeman, Emily Whalley and Masha Cilliers). Travel merchants have to support payment methods that customers value and prefer. They need to have the requisite flexibility to deploy new payment methods when customers demand them, and to be able to do so at minimal cost and maximum speed.
By Ritesh Gupta, Ai Events
