Founded in 2017, HappyEasyGo began with a mission to revolutionise the travel booking experience in India. Today, they have grown to become one of the country’s leading online travel agencies, and have expanded their offerings to include flights, hotels, and holiday packages.
Far from resting on their laurels, the company is priming itself for further expansion into international markets. Keeping up their growth in a cross-border industry means they have a keen insight into the challenges posed by payment processing and the need to streamline and optimise their payment infrastructure. This led them to work with Primer.
SMEhorizon speaks with HappyEasyGo CEO and Founder Boris Zha on how a robust payment platform has enhanced his company’s operations and how the challenges of implementation were overcome. Kailash Madan, Global Head of Sales, Primer, also weighs in on the key trends and developments in the digital payments sector, and how other companies can effectively leverage the new technologies available.
Technological advances in the digital payments sector
According to Madan, business leaders increasingly recognise the Memorize importance of payments when it comes to customer experience, cost, and the ability to enter new markets. “To provide one example, customers in different markets increasingly expect to pay using local payment methods; in Singapore alone, we have PayNow, GrabPay, ApplePay, Atome, among others”, he explains.
“To meet these expectations, businesses must adopt more payment services, which adds greater complexity to the process of integrating and maintaining services, making changes in the future, and analysing the performance across different providers”
This complexity is familiar to Zha, who recalls that as his company expanded both regionally and internationally, problems started to arise. “These included managing multiple payment methods across different countries, ensuring secure and seamless transactions, and mitigating the risk of fraud,” he says.
“Additionally, the need to optimize payment processing costs and improve conversion rates became increasingly apparent.”
Today, businesses can choose between payment orchestrators and payment infrastructures to help them achieve their goals. Madan explains: “Simply put, payment orchestrators focus primarily on optimising the throughput of payment processing. In contrast, payment infrastructures are designed to do that but go beyond and help businesses leverage payments as a growth driver.”
Madan says that if a business that operates across multiple markets needs to accept payments originating from several different countries, payment orchestrators can allow them to select a few different payment services and route between them.
“But if the same business is fast-growing and looking to expand or save costs and improve payment performance, it needs to dig deeper into what is and isn’t working in those markets. Investing in a payments infrastructure will give it access to enhanced functionality and features.
“That might mean setting up different rules around authentication for different countries, storing network tokens agnostically, testing payment success with different providers, accessing payment recovery tools, and more.
“Payment infrastructures can also provide access to granular data insights across all providers, allowing for an instant view of payment performance so that strategies can be implemented immediately.
“At the same time, without needing further development, SMEs can also get access to the latest features and tools, such as the ability to use Network Tokens agnostically across all payment processors,” he explains.
Getting new solutions boarded for success
Zha explains that working with Primer was part of their strategic initiative to streamline and optimize our payment infrastructure. The move has borne fruit. “The shift to Primer’s platform has significantly enhanced our operational efficiency,” he says. “By consolidating our payment processes under a single platform, we have been able to reduce the complexity and costs associated with managing multiple payment providers.
“This has not only improved our transaction success rates but also allowed us to offer a more seamless and secure booking experience to our customers.”
“Additionally, Primer’s global reach and support for various currencies have been instrumental in supporting our ongoing expansion into new markets, particularly in Southeast Asia, and will be key as we move towards entering Europe and the US.”
However, like all new technologies, the shift itself posed its own challenges. “One of the primary challenges was ensuring that the integration with Primer’s platform did not disrupt our ongoing operations. To address this, we adopted a phased implementation approach, allowing us to gradually migrate our payment processes without any downtime,” recalls Zha. Working closely with the support team also ensured that his staff had adequate training and assistance throughout the transition, minimising the impact on their customers.
Leveraging new technology effectively
While any technological shift can seem daunting, change is often necessary. Madan notes that when payments finally become a priority for businesses, it can often be too late. “Many businesses find themselves stuck with a monolithic payment system that is difficult to unpick. Thus, it’s crucial to embed optionality, flexibility, and optimization into the core foundation from the start. This will ultimately save you time and resources later,” he advises.
“It’s also important to consider how easy it is to integrate new payment methods or access new features without investing in developer resources,” he continues. “When using infrastructures, businesses can switch on payment services without any additional engineering work. That’s because the infrastructure layer has already built the integration. The cost savings achieved from the ability to do this without needing further in-house development and the ability to tap into new functions can be an advantage for firms with a limited talent pool and resources.”
Reflecting on his company’s experience, Zha recommends that SMEs exploring new payment orchestrators or infrastructures focus on scalability, flexibility, and security.
“Choose a partner that can grow with your business and adapt to your changing needs. It’s important to look for a platform that offers a wide range of payment options and advanced fraud prevention tools, as these will be crucial in supporting both regional and global expansion,” he says.
“Additionally, ensure that the orchestrator has a user-friendly interface and provides excellent customer support, as these factors can greatly influence the success of the transition.
“Finally, approach the integration process methodically, with careful planning and phased implementation to avoid any disruptions to your business operations.”
