The value of optimizing your payment strategy goes far beyond the transaction itself.
Payments provide airlines, cruise lines and other merchants with a catalyst for growth and innovation by aligning larger business priorities. This includes optimizing revenue streams, enhancing customer experiences, entering new markets, forging strategic partnerships, and expanding global reach.
Accepting alternative forms of payments (AFPs) is one strategy airlines and other merchants can leverage to unlock more value from payment technologies, gain insights into consumer behavior, streamline operational processes, and implement targeted marketing strategies.
The AFP market opportunity is well documented. Consider these stats:
- AFP market volume is more than $19 trillion globally.
- In the U.S. alone, McKinsey reports that nearly 90% of consumers use some form of digital payments.
- One segment, Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL), is growing by nearly 40% annually.
- Digital wallets now account for roughly half of all eCommerce spend
Accepting AFPs helps you align with how your customers are paying. Today, travelers can choose from hundreds of AFPs globally. They also expect their favorite airlines to offer a wide variety of payment options. Below we explore the value of AFPs and how you can optimize your payments strategy by getting AFPs to market faster.
Where AFPs are paying off
Being able to offer the right payment method to make it more convenient for travelers to pay is increasingly relevant to travel strategies. Accepting new AFPs means more completed transactions, happier customers, and incremental revenue. Airlines and other merchants can attract new customers by offering their preferred payment method, while also reducing chargebacks, fraud, and other costs at the same time.
Travelers across the globe have a wide variety of payment preferences, and according to YouGov they plan to use multiple different types of payment methods on their next domestic trip. Accepting a customerโs preferred payment method allows merchants to book more revenue and improve customer experience and loyalty.
Getting AFPs into Your Payment Optimization Strategy
Building a connection to an alternative form of payment from scratch can be a heavy lift. Airlines need a partner that removes complexities by helping them connect to numerous forms of payment with a single integration, simplified processing, and the ability to reconcile billing statements and automate refunds with ease.
There can be challenges if you donโt have the right partner. When adding AFPs to your portfolio, watch out for excessive processing costs, complex and indirect integrations, complex or inaccurate reconciliations, and manual refunds that waste time and inhibit cash flow.
How to Get AFPs to Market Faster
You might feel you have all the relevant forms of payment in your home market covered. But what about your global markets? Do you have what you need to connect your customers abroad to their preferred forms of payment?
Accepting AFPs using existing connections to the UATP Network helps merchants align strategic business priorities. From broadening your customer base, increasing your conversion rates, and decreasing payment processing costs, to lowering fraud risks, bolstering customer security, and reducing chargebacks, all of this translates to real ROI.
UATP helps airlines connect to 300+ alternative forms of payment (AFPs) around the world.
With UATP, integrating AFPs into your operations is fast and easy. You can count on UATP to enable multiple AFPs and enjoy many benefits:
- Limited IT development needed: UATP takes care of any required software updates.
- Multiple AFP options: Give your customers more payment options.
- Market-tested expertise: UATP is a leader in enabling AFPs; working with us translates to better use of time and financial resources.
Ready to elevate your payment strategy? Letโs talk about the possibilities.
With one simple integration, UATP can connect any airline to preferred forms of payment around the world. We have a proven track record of connecting alternative forms of payments into complex legacy systems for the global travel industry, and weโre always planning for the next form factor: open banking, real-time payments, blockchain, crypto, and more.
