Cleartrip Ushers In One-click Booking Facility 'Expressway' For Online & Mobile Platforms

Online travel agency Cleartrip has introduced a one-click booking facility called Expressway for both online and mobile booking. This will allow customers to store their credit, debit and payment card details in their Cleartrip accounts, so that bookings will happen fast., Cleartrip co-founder Hrush Bhat has announced it in the company's blog.

Expressway replaces Express Checkout, a similar facility which was previously available only on Cleartrip Mobile. However, its popularity induced Cleartrip to develop Expressway as a solution that would work across all platforms.

Expressway is an opt-in feature and needs to be turned on before you can use it. One needs to sign in to his/her Cleartrip account and click the 'Expressway' link on the left navigation bar. Next, you need to click the button that says 'Start by adding a card' and enter the card details. It works for both credit and debit cards, and supports all major card types – American Express, MasterCard, Visa and more. After that, a customer needs to enter his/her name or the name of the person for whom you book most frequently.

Similar features are already there on international sites like Amazon since a one-click process reduces the number of steps and the effort required to book a ticket, thereby increasing the conversion rate.

Combating Security Issues

Expressway will definitely do away with the hassles of entering the card details every time a customer wishes to book his/her ticket. But it might open the gateway for some security breaches as well. So how will Cleartrip combat that issue? The OTA is storing the card details in 128 bit encryption format and has also obtained a PCI DSS certification.

Talking to Techcircle.in, Sameer Bagul, vice-president (corporate strategy) at Cleartrip said, "The intention of introducing the new feature is to increase the conversion rate of repeat booking, as this would eventually save a lot of time. We expect the repeat booking to go up by 25 per cent because of this added feature."

Cleartrip has also revamped its account pages and even gave the payment pages a new look. In addition, customers can also integrate their Cleartrip accounts with Facebook and share their trips on the Facebook Wall.