Clickatell Debuts Pay-by-Chat Feature for Travel Sector

Chat commerce company Clickatell has updated its offerings for the travel sector.

According to a Wednesday (Dec. 7) news release, new benefits of the company’s chat commerce platform include lower costs for businesses to hold chat conversations and engagement in real-time or any-time communications.

The company has also integrated its “Chat 2 Pay” service into its Chat Desk platform, to let brands offer and accept payments in business messages. With this service, travelers get a payment link and complete the payment through a checkout page on their mobile phones.

“Traveling has become such a different experience in the post-pandemic world, and nothing is more frustrating than an inconvenient customer service experience,” Clickatell Co-founder and CEO Pieter de Villiers said in the release.

“By reaching your customer where they already are in messaging channels, rather than making them download or maintain a mobile app, travelers can instantly connect with your company and get support through their chat app of choice.”

He added that personalized, frictionless customer service and engagement in the travel industry is as important — if not more important — than the sale itself.

Clickatell is launching the new features at a moment when Increasing optionality in travel payments is helping to keep fuel the sector’s rebound.

Speaking to PYMNTS recently, Al Enes, vice president of gig economy and travel at payments platform Nuvei, said it’s no secret that two-plus years of pent-up demand was unleashed early in the year and helped drive year-over-year increases in air traffic. Payment options play a crucial role in this growth, he said.

“Local payment methods are key to unlocking certain jurisdictions,” Enes told PYMNTS. “The easiest way to think about it would be you’re more comfortable transacting in your local currency because you understand what that is.”

It’s a similar situation with payment methods, as the ability to transact with your preferred payment tool gives travelers confidence that transactions will be completed and that their details will remain secure.

“Things like digital wallets, which grew tremendously during the pandemic, are very valuable to sellers of travel,” he said. “Also, buy now pay later, which has just skyrocketed through the pandemic, and in travel specifically.”