Expanding into new markets is an exciting sign of growth for any merchant, but it can be challenging to make progress with a brand that international shoppers aren’t very familiar with.
Looking to expand into international markets, Spanish travel booking site Reserving.com focused on improving the experience of its shoppers by implementing Amazon Pay—an online payment service and checkout process that integrates seamlessly with third-party websites and mobile apps—while taking advantage of the trusted Amazon brand to improve conversion rates for global shoppers. Using this solution, Reserving.com has boosted reservations, increased brand recognition, and reduced incident reports.
Expanding internationally using Amazon Pay
Founded in 2001 in Spain, Reserving.com offers online accommodation reservations and bookings for other travel-related services such as flights, activities, rental cars, and more. In 2008, the merchant began expanding outside of Spain and Latin America with their international site Reserving.com, providing reservations for more destinations and reaching shoppers worldwide. Now it helps shoppers book reservations with more than 2.5 million accommodation listings in over 70,000 locations globally. Its services are available in six languages, and it accepts three different currencies.
Reserving.com worked to grow its brand, but had little brand recognition outside of Spain. At the same time, it noted a high shopping cart abandonment rate, which was due to long payment processes. To address both of these challenges, the merchant wanted to create a trustworthy and frictionless experience for international shoppers and establish alternative payment methods that would make it faster for shoppers to finalize their reservations.
Valuing the user experience above all, Reserving.com looked for a solution that would simplify payment for shoppers. In June 2022, it made Amazon Pay available to its shoppers, streamlining checkout, adding important features for international users, and harnessing the reliability and security of the Amazon brand.
“Amazon Pay gives confidence to the shoppers that we reach in international markets, who might not know Reserving.com,” says José María Bayona, marketing, communications, and digital channel coordinator at Reserving.com. “That makes it much simpler to convert shoppers. They see that we have a good price and a good product, and on top of that, we have flexible payment through a recognized company.”
Generating trust and brand recognition for Reserving.com
Reserving.com added the Amazon Pay checkout feature—which makes transactions faster by enabling checkout in only a few clicks—to the checkout options on both its web and mobile channels. This quick and seamless option was extremely popular for shoppers, and in turn a majority of these users later confirm their reservations.
Integration of the feature went smoothly, and the merchant instantly gained access to more information about order status, which made backend management simpler. “Everything has flowed quite well,” says Bayona. “We haven’t had any surprises, and we haven’t found any problems.” In fact, Reserving.com has noticed that its call center—which is responsible for internally managing incidents, modifications, and cancellations related to contracted reservations—receives fewer incident reports from shoppers using Amazon Pay compared with those using other payment methods.
The team also implemented other Amazon Pay features. In May 2023, it rolled out deferred payments, which captures payment from shoppers when specific milestones are met. For Reserving.com, this was useful for shoppers booking accommodation well in advance. It also made cancellation simpler for shoppers to navigate. After adding this feature, Reserving.com found that it received more reservations through Amazon Pay than through other payment methods.
In addition, Reserving.com introduced flexible charge, which shoppers can use to modify a transaction using the same transaction ID. This option benefited shoppers who wanted to add other products, such as insurance, to their accommodation reservations.
Reserving.com also benefited from the brand recognition of Amazon. “Regardless of where you are booking the hotel—in Spain, the United States, Mexico, or anywhere else—if you see the Amazon Pay option, it generates trust,” says Julio Pastor, technical manager at Reserving.com. “Almost everyone has an Amazon account. If they enter for the first time not knowing who we are, but they see that they can check out with their Amazon account, that’s great.” The trust shoppers have in this payment option differentiates Reserving.com from its competitors, which is important but difficult to accomplish within this vertical.
Reserving.com can now offer more transparency and control to its shoppers, who receive more information regarding the status of their payments, and can effortlessly choose between the cards that are linked to their Amazon accounts.
Integrating more Amazon Pay features for Reserving.com
By integrating Amazon Pay, Reserving.com reached more people around the world and unlocked immediate benefits for itself and its shoppers alike. Reserving.com now provides coverage for all its shoppers’ payment needs. Moving forward, Reserving.com plans to implement even more Amazon Pay features.
“There hasn’t been a situation where we’ve had to say, ‘We can’t do this because Amazon Pay doesn’t support it,’” says Pastor. “We can implement everything. We can reach any place in the world and grow in other markets with the security of Amazon Pay.”