Connect&GO: Attractive payment solutions for the attractions industry

Everything changed in May 2021. After losing a French prospect, Connect&GO received an urgent call. The prospect had issues with their current provider and needed to go live in 45 days. Connect&GO had everything in place to assist except a payments provider.

They reached out to Adyen, who recommended a long-term strategy—Konnect Payments, a white-labeled product built on Adyen for Platforms (AfP). Connect&GO knew entering the payments space would be complicated. Still, they recognized that consolidating under Adyen could solve many of the challenges preventing them from scaling and letting them offer new payment experiences to their customers. 

“Since we were working with multiple payment providers in multiple countries, new integrations were complex and delayed expansion,” explains François-Pierre. Multiple providers meant disconnected data. Additionally, their providers had limited fraud prevention capabilities, requiring third-party tools that added cost. 

For platform users like The Looping Group, dealing with disconnected data meant reconciliation was a pain. They also desired the ability to process payments in environments where customers might not have their wallets or phones on them.

The quick integration with AfP helped prove to Connect&GO that Adyen was the right partner for embedding payments into Connect&GO’s future. Now, with platform users in France, the UK, Canada, and the US, Adyen’s one API integration has helped Connect&GO enter new markets swiftly by dealing with complexity quickly. With numerous local payment methods, one integration for each country and sales channels, Connect&GO can count on simplicity and stickiness in their payments offering.

A leader in RFID technology, Connect&GO sought a partner with equal ambition. Adyen’s S1F2 terminal connects with Connect&GO’s RFID bracelets, allowing enterprises like Six Flags to make payments invisible across their parks. The S1F2 is an all-in-one Android device featuring the latest NFC technology, so any platform business can load its POS application into it. 

With Adyen’s tokenization technology, Six Flags’ customers can effortlessly load their RFID wristbands directly through the S1F2, eliminating the need to worry about payments; everything is on the wristband. In addition, the entire customer journey can be tracked and traced. The connected data provides invaluable insights to Connect&GO and Six Flags.

According to François-Pierre, “The S1F2 adds another dimension to our platform users’ omnichannel offerings. You can have attendants who expressly sell on mobile devices coming up to people in line and expediting the process.”

Adyen’s unified platform gives Connect&GO a data edge over its competitors.

Adyen’s single solution streamlines reporting and reconciliation. With all their data centralized, Connect&GO can assist platform users in making informed business decisions.

“You can link a POS transaction to a payment ID in the same report. It makes it very clear if there are any issues with reconciliation or chargebacks. All the data is available through APIs. We are just starting to scratch the surface,” explains François-Pierre.

For Connect&GO’s users, security is a top priority. Adyen’s effortless integration with a single API comes with customizable security rules and 3D Secure (3DS).

One version of a local provider’s API didn’t have 3DS implemented, so Connect&GO had to install another API to activate it. Some legacy systems don’t have fraud prevention, so Connect&GO had to ask their platform users to manually mark which transactions were potentially fraudulent in their POS. Adyen’s single solution eliminates the need for such add-ons.

Adds François-Pierre, “A lot of tools are available out of the box. You don’t have to implement anything special.”  

Everything is embedded in one place and secure, providing Connect&GO with peace of mind regarding payments as the flow remains protected.

Since partnering with Adyen, Connect&GO has seen tremendous growth in embedded payments. The additional revenue stream has doubled in the last two years, soaring from a gross transaction value of (GTV) $100,000,000 processed in 2022, to $200,000,000 GTV in 2023.

Connect&GO continues to scale into Adyen and has seen excellent results. As they earn new business, they see 0% churn and a 100% renewal rate.  “Payments powered by Adyen contributed to the overall effort,” emphasizes François-Pierre.

Having achieved success with embedded payments in ecommerce, POS, mobile, and self-serve kiosks, Connect&GO is now exploring other offerings in the Adyen product suite. In addition to open-loop payments and buy now, pay later, they have their sights set on embedded finance.

Given the stability and revenue knowledge of their platform users, there is an excellent opportunity to provide business financing in the future. It’s the next frontier of payments, and Connect&GO trusts Adyen to support them on this journey.  

Connect&GO doesn’t lack ambition or innovation. Thanks to their partnership with Adyen, they can keep pushing forward.