As one of the most established vertical SaaS platforms for the fitness, wellness, and beauty industry, Mindbody delivers industry-leading tools for scheduling, marketing, analytics, and client engagement. With Mindbody Payments, an embedded payment solution powered by Stripe, the platform gives gyms, studios, and other merchants the payment capabilities they need to reduce costs, grow revenue, and run their business more efficiently.

Because many Mindbody users process a significant portion of their transactions in person, improving that payment experience was a top priority to help clients operate more efficiently and grow revenue. Earlier iterations of Mindbody Payments featured a third-party magnetic swiper device that merchants found expensive and difficult to use. Some Mindbody customers also conducted in-person business on a different POS system, which made it hard for them to reconcile in-person payments with online and subscription revenue streams.

Mindbody built Mindbody Payments on Stripe Connect, Stripe’s solution for platform payments. With Connect, Mindbody can now easily integrate new payment solutions into the broader Mindbody platform. In 2022, Mindbody implemented Stripe Terminal to unify payments across online and in-person channels. Mindbody supported a range of in-person payment options, including dedicated terminals as well as Tap to Pay, which allows businesses to start accepting contactless in-person payments with only a mobile device—no extra hardware required. It was simple for Mindbody’s engineers to integrate using Stripe’s developer tools and extensive documentation.

After improving the in-person payment experience with Terminal, Mindbody next wanted to tackle the behind-the-scenes process of getting clients set up with card readers to accept all forms of payments—tap, dip, or swipe—on high-performing card readers. For that task, the company turned to Happy Cog, a New York-based digital agency specializing in web and mobile app development for mid-size and enterprise companies.

Automating the Terminal reader ordering experience

Initially, Mindbody used a manual purchase and order process for card readers, which required staff to handle each order and arrange shipping to the customer. While the process worked, it consumed two hours or more of staff time for every card reader order, delaying businesses from being able to take in-person payments.

That’s where Happy Cog came in. A Stripe Specialized Partner with Terminal expertise, the company was a natural fit to support Mindbody’s vision. “Mindbody was using a very manual process that they didn’t realize could be automated. They mentioned it in passing to Stripe, and Stripe brought us in to see if we could help,” said Matt Weinberg, cofounder and president of technology at Happy Cog.

After a discovery process, Happy Cog built a new workflow within the Mindbody platform that would let merchants place and manage orders for card readers. The workflow would be powered by Stripe’s Terminal Hardware Orders API, which automates the process for ordering and provisioning devices. With the API, each reader is connected to the specific gym’s Stripe and Mindbody accounts before being automatically shipped out by a third-party partner. This allows readers to be plugged in and used immediately without any extra setup required by the business owner, while also freeing Mindbody staff from having to configure and send out devices themselves.

“We’ve implemented Stripe’s Hardware Orders API for many clients, and each time, it has let us build a seamless solution across a nuanced Connect and Terminal setup,” said Weinberg.

Integrating the new workflow into Mindbody’s platform

To securely integrate the Mindbody hardware management workflow into the Mindbody platform, Happy Cog worked closely with Mindbody’s engineers to incorporate the new code into their extensive existing codebase. Happy Cog also used the Mindbody design team’s frontend component library, so the workflow felt indistinguishable from the rest of the platform.

On the backend, Happy Cog built additional API calls to link each reader’s serial number to the right Connect account. When a reader arrives, all a gym needs to do is connect it to Wi-Fi and complete a quick, guided authentication flow. Thanks to Happy Cog, Mindbody launched its new hardware management workflow in less than four months.

“Everything is already linked to their Mindbody and Stripe account, so they can start taking payments almost as soon as they take it out of the box,” said Weinberg.