Challenge

Headquartered in Paris, Planity started as an online booking system, which allowed customers to schedule appointments for haircuts and other salon services. In its original form, the site lacked payment capabilities, leaving salons to handle payments on their own.

Eventually, Planity leaders saw an opportunity to turn an online booking site into a more comprehensive platform. Their goal was to provide salons with an integrated revenue management solution where they could manage bookings and earnings, track expenses, and view transactions in one place.

Planity also wanted to help salons tackle the challenge of losing revenue to no-shows. It envisioned introducing a deposit system, which would encourage customers to keep their appointments and help salons capture at least some revenue in the event of a no-show.

In addition to online payments, Planity also wanted to offer a solution for collecting in-person payments and tips. To fully capture all salon transactions and improve the tipping process, Planity needed to bridge the gap between online and offline payments.

Finally, when the company looked to expand into new markets such as Belgium and Germany, it needed a payments platform ready to adapt to differences in local payment preferences and cash register software certifications. “To become a European leader, we needed a partner to keep up with the pace of fintech innovation, where Europe lags behind the US,” said Antoine Puymirat, co-founder and chief executive officer at Planity. “We wanted to keep up with US fintech's technological advances.”

Solution

Planity initially chose Stripe in 2021 because of its trusted architecture and easy-to-use APIs, which eliminated integration complexity. Another key reason was Stripe's ability to accept local payment methods, which most French payment competitors didn't have.

Planity implemented Stripe Connect to manage funds flows between the platform and individual salons, and between salons and their clients. Connect allowed Planity to automate payments and reduce operational overhead, all while building a new revenue stream by taking service fees. Now, with Stripe integrated into the Planity dashboard, salons can easily handle their earnings, keep track of expenses, and see all their transaction data in one place.

Simultaneously, Planity adopted Stripe Payments to offer fast and secure payment solutions to salons, and address the no-show problem. By integrating Payments into its online booking platform, Planity provided salons with a cash register solution, along with the ability to collect deposits at the time of booking. The deposits on online reservations allow requesting customers to pay all or part of the service price at the time of booking to confirm the appointment. In the event of a late cancellation or unfulfilled appointment, it ensures a minimum amount of payment.

In 2022, Planity added Stripe Terminal, which enabled the platform to build an in-person checkout experience to accept physical payments in salons. With Terminal's on-reader tipping, salons can also display suggested tip amounts before customers pay. And because Terminal is natively interoperable with Connect, Planity can streamline onboarding, payouts, and reconciliation for all transactions.

To facilitate its international expansion, particularly in diverse European markets, Planity implemented Stripe’s optimised checkout suite, which includes the Payment Element, and dynamically surfaces payment methods based on customer preferences. These features enabled Planity to drive conversion with a variety of local payment methods and handle multiple currencies – important for its growth across Europe.

Results

Powerful insights and better salon retention

Stripe's user-friendly Dashboards provide technical insights into transactions and reporting. “Our salons actively use the integrated Dashboard, which includes detailed information about payments. This transparency reduces support calls and empowers salon owners to answer billing questions from customers,” said Puymirat. Plus, Planity's internal teams get instant insights without having to open tickets with developers.

Overall, Planity increased customer satisfaction and retention. Notably, Planity observed a significantly higher retention rate among salons that fully used its integrated solutions (Payments and Terminal). They had almost half the churn rate of salons using only the Terminal solution.

5% more revenue for Planity

With Payments, salons using Planity are able to collect deposits at the time of booking and keep those funds if the client doesn't show. In the meantime, when a deposit is required to book an appointment, Planity charges an additional service fee to the client. “With Stripe, we've been able to monetise our deposit system, adding 5% to Planity's revenue, and we hope to increase it to 40%, which includes payments in-store using the POS terminal,” said Puymirat.

200% increase in annual payment volume and tip revenue

With Terminal, Planity significantly enhanced its payment handling by uniting online and offline transactions. As a result, Planity's payment volume jumped from €40 million in 2020 to €120 million in 2023. Plus, the automated tip option tripled staff tips. Using Stripe, Planity also created a feature that lets salons link tips to individual stylists, ensuring fair distribution to the staff.

Successful international expansion supported by Stripe's flexibility

With Stripe, Planity was able to easily enter new markets and adapt to local payment needs, with no extra engineering. Since beginning to use Stripe, Planity has onboarded over 400 salons in Belgium and Germany and is planning to expand into Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands.