Online shopping

MANILA, Philippines - No credit card? No problem! BancNet makes it a lot easier for subscribers to avail of great online deals and shop in the convenience of their own home through its latest partnership with Asia Pay and the country’s leading budget airline company, Cebu Pacific.

AsiaPay

If you’ve ever found yourself wanting to purchase something online – but can’t, because you don’t have a credit card, Asia Pay is more than willing to help you out.

As a leading payment gateway provider, Asia Pay brings the convenience of online shopping and e-commerce not just to credit card users but to ATM cardholders as well. It is a Hong Kong based company which provides online payment services by running the payment gateways of 13 partner banks across eight countries in Asia. Through its recent partnership with BancNet, the biggest ATM consortium in the country with 60 member banks and subscribers; Asia Pay is able to provide shoppers and partner merchants with real time collection of payments that has not been achieved before.

“The local e-commerce industry is really looking for more payment options to offer to their customers. The benefit here is that e-commerce merchants can now add BancNet to their payment options. Keep in mind that two out of three people are actually BancNet users,” says Andrian Lee, general manager, Philippine and Emerging Markets of Asia Pay. “In the Philippines, e-commerce is still an emerging market which is why banks would rather outsource this type of service to us,” Lee adds.

The goal here, he says is that everyone who has an ATM card will now consider shopping online. This is why, they at Asia Pay have also made things easier for merchants when it comes to installing the Peso Pay service. Compared to using Java applications, Andrian shares that their new “copy/paste” method is less daunting and can be done by anyone who has a little bit of knowledge in using html.

Now for the customers, Andrian assures that there’s no more need to enroll in an online banking service, instead, all you need is your ATM personal identification number (PIN) to access Peso Pay through BancNet. To ensure that every transaction done through Asia Pay is secure, he shares that BancNet has invested in a special technology to come up with the randomized keypad which makes it impossible for hackers to get the customer’s PIN. After every successful transaction, the customer will receive an online confirmation from Asia Pay.

“From a business point of view, the advantages of Asia Pay for merchants is that it’s so easy to avoid fraudulent transactions and all sales are final so payments made here can be considered as good as cash by the merchant.” he adds.

Since the start of their partnership last June, Andrian shares that they now have about 20 partner merchants that have already signed up under BancNet. Hopefully through their regular business workshops, they’ll be able to get more establishments to join.

“It’s important that you have a service that doesn’t scare customers away. What we are providing here are affordable e-commerce services. We want to educate our merchants of the things that they do and achieve through this tie-up with BancNet.”

For more on Asia Pay and its tie-up with BancNet please visit http://www.asiapay.com.ph

Cebu Pacific

Paving the way for Pinoys to better afford domestic and international travel, Cebu Pacific is now the go-to budget airline of every penny pinching Pinoy traveler. A huge chunk of the company’s success can be attributed to its website, cebupacificair.com which up to this day enjoys heavy traffic from its steady stream of loyal customers. Cebu Pacific VP for Marketing and Distribution, Candice Iyog talks about CEB’s early years and its gradual ascent as the Pinoy favorite that it is now.

The Philippine STAR: When did you begin the transition in turning Cebu Pacific into the type of budget airline that it is today? To what can you attribute the company’s success?

Candice: When the airline started, CEB offered snacks and drinks to passengers, and later offered frequent flyer miles, and used mixed fleet of aircraft. But in mid-2004, CEB decided to stick to the low-cost carrier model. With fleet modernization, new fare structures and the introduction of an online booking system, CEB greatly expanded both its domestic and international network.

The Philippine STAR: Are there plans of expanding to more destinations soon - this year or next year? Where?

Candice: We will begin flying to Brunei this August 21, 2010 and Beijing this September 5, 2010. We also expect delivery of three brand-new Airbus A320 aircraft during the last quarter of this year as part of our expansion plan.

 The Philippine STAR: Aside from the airlines, what are the other services that Cebu Pacific has to offer? Will there be more services soon?

Candice: Aside from our low fares, flights and frequency, we offer several products once the guest reaches the destination. We have Fun Tours packages, Hotels Plus, and partnerships with Europcar rental services and Ticketworld. Guests can also opt to add on Seat Selection, Travelsure Insurance, Prepaid Excess Baggage, Sports Equipment Fee and ‘Go Lite’ to their bookings through the ‘Manage my Booking’ section of our website. (Go Hotels is managed by Robinsons Land)

The Philippine STAR: When did you start offering payments through BancNet? Was it able to get a good response from your customers? Aside from airline tickets, do you also offer BancNet for your other services?

Candice: The partnership with BancNet Online started last September, when we launched our payment center option for our guests who wish to book tickets through the website but do not have credit cards. We wanted to engage BancNet Online as a Cebu Pacific payment center because of its easy online access, and BancNet being the largest ATM consortium in the Philippines , we can therefore be very accessible to most of our passengers.

The Philippine STAR: What’s the advantage of having this type of payment option and did it have any significant effect on your sales?

Candice: The payment center option is more convenient and accessible to Cebu Pacific passengers. They can check out www.cebupacificair.com from the comfort of their homes or offices 24/7, choose their flights, and pay via ATM, over-the-counter or online banking. With this payment center/BancNet online option, we are opening ourselves up to the non-credit card market. For our existing market, we also get to offer an additional option for them.

For more info on how you can pay for your Cebu Pacific bookings through your BancNet ATM card, visit http://www.cebupacificair.com/flights-and-fares/bancnet.html