eTraveli Group is a flight-centric online travel agency (OTA) dedicated to offering travelers the most relevant flight content, the best prices, and the most convenient routes and services available.
The travel industry can be challenging – thin margins, volume-dependent, price-sensitive, demanding customers, vulnerable to fraudulent activity, and more competition than ever before – and eTraveli Group was determined to stay a step ahead. “The travel industry is a fast-moving industry. Customers are a lot more demanding than they used to be. They want the best price, the most relevant options, and they want a one-stop shop,” says Peny Rizou, Director of Payments and Fraud for eTraveli Group. “The more demanding customers become, the more the OTAs are being challenged to optimize their product offering while ensuring their business remains sustainable. When a merchant is highly dependent on volumes and operates on very thin margins, everything matters – approval rates matter, costs matter, efficiency matters. Everything is relevant,” says Rizou.
To optimize their business, eTraveli Group went in search of payments providers that could keep up with the rapidly changing landscape and meet their future growth plans. Moreover, they wanted to find a provider who could offer creative solutions, expert advice, transparency, flexibility, and most importantly, was committed to establishing long-term success for their merchants. “Checkout.com was very open and honest. They were transparent about anything that had to do with cost structures, payment setups, and best practices. Seeing a partner being so transparent and not afraid to show their cards was the green light for us to partner with them,” says Rizou.
It wasn’t easy for eTraveli Group to find payment providers that offered both a strong product offering while also being flexible, transparent, and provided great customer support. “We had been searching for a payments provider who would cover us more holistically. What we valued with Checkout.com was their readiness to support our growth plans. They were ready to be flexible and customize solutions according to our needs,” says Rizou. As with any strong partnership, eTraveli Group also found Checkout.com to be a good cultural fit. “We had chemistry. Our two companies had matching cultures and mentalities,” she adds.
eTraveli Group takes off with Checkout.com
“When we brought Checkout.com onboard, we saw improvements in many areas, one of the most important being our approval rates,” says Rizou. Not only did they see an uplift in approval rates from mature markets, but they also saw a significant boost coming from emerging, less-established markets that have historically shown lower conversion.
eTraveli Group was also able to gain valuable insight into their business through the delivery of complete, granular data from the Checkout.com platform. In addition to supplying this data, Checkout.com synthesizes and translates it into something actionable for the merchant. “If you don’t have data, you don’t have visibility. Checkout.com is providing all the data a merchant could need to gain visibility on what exactly is going on across the whole payment processing flow,” says Rizou. “Having a payment provider that will allow you to look into your costs, understand what’s happening, and understand how you can be more efficient is mandatory,” she adds.
Checkout.com is an ever-evolving company that understands the importance of adaptability. In addition to providing a reliable product offering, Checkout.com’s responsiveness to changing market conditions gave eTraveli Group added confidence that they would be able to adapt to ever-changing market demands. With advanced payments technology, Checkout.com has enabled eTraveli Group to optimize their costs, in turn allowing them to optimize their pricing for their customers.
What’s next for eTraveli Group?
While already present in most major markets, eTraveli Group plans to expand its international presence and compete by having more local product offerings. “Going international means we have to go local, and Checkout.com has the local product offerings we need to support our growth plans including currency enablement, FX management, and good approval rates through local payment setups,” says Rizou.
“We need to have full control of our costs, have full visibility, and continuously optimize our setup, and we felt Checkout.com was the right fit for us – and we were not wrong,” says Rizou.
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