Challenge

One of the world’s leading platforms for booking beauty and wellness services, Booksy serves over 20 million users. In 2021, the platform needed a more robust payment offering to keep up with the evolving needs of its providers. Booksy’s previous payment provider wasn’t meeting expectations, especially regarding payout speed, which drove some of its users to less secure payment methods as a workaround. To support a broader range of use cases, Booksy also wanted an omnichannel solution that would allow merchants to collect payments in a variety of ways, including in person, within the app, or in advance, at the time of booking.

“In the early days of our business, payments weren’t a top priority,” says Piotr Posadzy, head of payments for Booksy. “Over time, our merchants’ needs grew, and it was time for a more sophisticated solution. We wanted something that was marketplace-friendly, with a vast global network.”

In addressing these challenges, Booksy faced an additional hurdle: the company was
deeply integrated with and invested in its original payment processor. Switching payment providers was a major undertaking, and Booksy had some concerns about the difficulty and time that might be required to replace its old systems while maintaining payment acceptance continuity.

Solution

Booksy chose to replace its payment solution with Stripe and implement several products to meet its providers’ varied and evolving needs.

With Stripe Payments and Stripe Connect, Booksy could support users on its platform with payments and payouts globally, using Stripe’s single API across regions. The company implemented the optimised checkout suite, including the Payment Element, to improve the payment experience for both customers and providers. Stripe Terminal gave Booksy the flexibility providers needed to deliver a fast, easy payment experience whether customers were paying online, in person, or via mobile app. Booksy also integrated Stripe Radar to enhance its fraud prevention and protection.

Recognising the complexity and magnitude of replacing Booksy’s legacy payment provider, Booksy opted to work with Stripe’s professional services team and a support plan for ongoing guidance. Stripe’s professional services team provided guidance in key business areas such as provider onboarding, and worked closely with Booksy engineers to ensure the proposed implementation met their business goals.

Results

New capabilities for merchants and a streamlined, omnichannel approach

Booksy achieved its vision of a complete payments platform that allows its providers to manage payments entirely through their Booksy account – no outside solutions needed. “Making sure that providers could complete transactions at the point of sale or after an appointment was absolutely critical,” Posadzy says. “With Terminal, we could help providers deliver a great customer experience across channels.”

Providers such as nail salons and barber shops can now easily collect payments in person. They can also manage online payments – such as those made at the time of booking or after an appointment – all within the same dashboard. And with Instant Payouts, available through Stripe Connect, providers can receive funds in as little as a few minutes, down from two days, helping Booksy’s many self-employed providers maintain a steady cash flow. These features help Booksy deliver the robust business capabilities its providers need to scale and grow.

Smooth integration and swift migration of tens of thousands of connected accounts

With the help of the professional services team, Booksy tackled the daunting task of replacing its original payment provider within five months. “This was a complicated, multi-layered project, and we valued having expert attention and support throughout the process,” Posadzy says. “Without professional services, it might have taken twice as long.”

To help ensure a smooth integration and successful adoption of Stripe, the professional services team partnered with Booksy’s operations, marketing, and sales teams to prepare for launch, held deep-dive training sessions on Stripe products, and held an on-site in Poland to help Booksy build a roadmap for its Stripe rollout.

“Professional services was a huge help integrating with Stripe,” says Pawel Tama, Booksy payments project manager. “And it went beyond just answering minor questions – it included a large range of services and constant consulting on new ideas. We talked through issues and received guidance on how to use different products. On a scale of one to 10, we’d give professional services an 11.”

Booksy wanted to make the switch as simple as possible for providers, and the company migrated tens of thousands of connected provider accounts from its previous payment solution to Stripe overnight with a 97% success rate.