Selling connectivity is one of the better ancillaries available to a travel business, and it is underused. It costs nothing to hold, delivers instantly, solves a problem every international traveller has, and reaches the customer at a moment when they are already thinking about the practicalities of their trip.
It is also easy to get wrong, and the wrong version is the one most agencies build first: a separate eSIM brand that has to attract customers from scratch. This is a guide to doing it the way that actually works, which is putting the product inside the journey you already own.
Why this works for agencies specifically
- You reach the customer at the exact moment connectivity becomes relevant: the booking.
- You already hold the trust that independent eSIM brands have to buy.
- Acquisition cost is close to zero, which is the factor that decides margin in this category.
- It is an ancillary, so it improves margin on bookings you were making anyway.
- The mistake is building a separate eSIM store instead of putting it in the flow.
Why agencies have an advantage here
Independent travel eSIM brands have one structural problem: they are asking a customer to hand money to a company they have never heard of, for something they cannot verify until they land in another country. That is a lot of trust to ask.
Where travellers say they would rather buy connectivity
Source: Kaleido Intelligence traveller survey, 2026. The gap is the commercial argument for selling connectivity inside a booking flow rather than beside it.
Sources: GSMA consumer research; Kaleido Intelligence, 2026.
Kaleido Intelligence found 89% of travellers would prefer to buy a travel eSIM from a provider they already have a relationship with, and only 60% from a dedicated specialist. GSMA research found 51% of eSIM users first tried the technology while travelling abroad. Put those together and the position of a travel agency becomes obvious: you hold the relationship, and you are present at the exact moment the need arises.
Where to put the offer
Placement matters more than pricing or packaging. The closer the offer sits to the booking, the better it performs.
| Placement | How it works | Typical performance | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking confirmation page | Offer a plan for the destination just booked | Strongest; the customer is committed and thinking about the trip | Moderate; needs destination and date passed through |
| Confirmation email | Include a connectivity option alongside the itinerary | Good, and the easiest place to start | Low; a link with destination pre-selected |
| Pre-departure email | Reminder a week before travel | Very good; the trip is now imminent and real | Low if you already send pre-departure comms |
| Checkout add-on | A tick-box alongside insurance and transfers | Good, but competes with other ancillaries for attention | Higher; touches the payment flow |
| Agent-assisted | Consultant adds it while building the itinerary | Excellent conversion, limited by agent time | Low technically, needs training |
| Standalone store | A separate eSIM site you drive traffic to | Weakest; you pay to reach your own customers | Low to build, expensive to run |
Relative performance based on how close each placement sits to the moment of booking. Test in your own flow before committing to one.
The pre-departure email is the most underrated of these. At booking, a trip can be months away and connectivity feels abstract. A week before departure the customer is actively preparing, which is when a connectivity offer converts best. If you already send pre-departure information, adding it there is close to free.
Four commercial models
How you sell it determines how much of the value you keep.
| Model | What you do | Margin | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliate link | Refer customers to a provider and take a commission | Lowest; you hand over the customer | Testing demand with minimal effort |
| White-label store | Branded storefront you link to from your comms | Better; you set retail pricing | Agencies without development resource |
| API integration | eSIM issued inside your own booking flow | Best; near-zero acquisition cost | Anyone with a digital booking journey |
| Bundled inclusion | Connectivity included in the package price | Indirect; raises package value and conversion | Tour operators selling all-inclusive itineraries |
Affiliate links are a reasonable way to test demand in a fortnight, but they hand your customer to somebody else and pay you a fraction of the value. If the test works, moving to a white-label store or an API integration is where the economics improve substantially, because you set retail pricing and keep the customer relationship.
Bundled inclusion deserves consideration for tour operators. Including connectivity in the package price removes a decision from the customer, differentiates the package, and lets you buy data at wholesale while charging nothing visible for it. The cost is small relative to a package price and the perceived value is high.
Designing the product and the experience
Package design that converts
- Pre-select the destination from the booking; never make them choose
- Match validity to the trip length you already know
- Offer three sizes, not twelve
- Regional plans for multi-country itineraries
- Show a compatibility check before payment
- State plainly when validity starts
What creates support tickets
- Selling to a device that cannot use an eSIM
- Customers installing weeks early and finding it expired
- Correct install but data left on the home line
- Roaming switched off on the new profile
- QR code buried in an email nobody kept
- No support channel that works on hotel wifi
The single highest-return item on the left is pre-selecting the destination. You already know where the customer is going and for how long. Asking them to choose a country and a plan size from a dropdown reintroduces exactly the friction that makes standalone eSIM stores hard, and it is entirely avoidable when the offer sits inside your own flow.
On the right, device compatibility is the item that generates the most avoidable refunds. A check before payment costs nothing and eliminates a whole category of failure.
How to start
Start with the confirmation email
It is the lowest-effort placement and it validates demand without touching your booking engine. A link with the destination pre-selected tells you within a few weeks whether your customers will buy connectivity from you.
Get rates for the destinations you actually sell
Your booking data already tells you where your customers go. Ask for wholesale pricing on those specific countries rather than a generic global rate card, because rates vary enormously by market.
Price as an ancillary, not as a telecom product
You are not competing in an open marketplace. You are offering convenience at the moment of need to someone who already trusts you. Price for the value of that convenience rather than matching the cheapest global store.
Design the twenty minutes after purchase
Compatibility check before payment, install instructions for both iOS and Android, and a pre-departure reminder with the QR code attached again. This is where refunds and complaints are prevented.
Move into the booking flow once it works
With demand proven from email, an API integration into the confirmation page or checkout is a four to twelve week project and materially improves attach rate.
Track attach rate and refund rate
Attach rate tells you whether the placement works. Refund rate tells you whether the activation experience does. Both are more useful than revenue in the first quarter.
Step three is where agencies frequently undersell. Because eSIM prices are visible online, there is a temptation to match the cheapest global provider. But your customer is not comparison shopping at that moment; they are being offered a solution to a problem they had not yet solved, by a business they already trust, at the point of booking. That convenience has real value and pricing it at the floor gives it away.
Frequently asked questions
Add connectivity to the bookings you already make
eSIM Island supplies travel agencies and tour operators through white-label stores and API integration, with wholesale rates for the destinations you actually sell. Tell us your top destinations and booking volumes and we will prepare a proposal.
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