KEY TAKEAWAYS: Mobile payment systems are the hub of a small salon, enabling them to provide unmatched customer service and improve their sales numbers. Choosing the best mobile payment system for a small salon business is vital, and we’re here to help you do just that.
Embracing a career as a beauty pro can be extremely rewarding, especially for those who are passionate about their craft.
Whether you’re a creative powerhouse pushing the latest beauty trends forward or a deeply caring person who thrives when helping others feel their best, the benefits of pursuing your interests and refining your talents are many.
While much of your work revolves around the things you love, finding success in the beauty industry also requires business acumen.
This means you have to do things like payroll, taxes, marketing, and other essential tasks to help your beauty biz flourish.
One of the key aspects of your beauty business is ensuring that your payment system is streamlined. This seemingly small detail can drastically affect your business and your client experience, making it quite impactful.
Thankfully, we’re here to help answer the age-old question: What is the best mobile payment system for a small business?
What is the Best Mobile Payment System for a Small Business?
Before diving into the best mobile payment systems for your salon, it’s important to understand the many advantages of investing in a great system. While just one small piece of the puzzle, your payment system can have a tremendous positive impact on your overall business.
Mobile payment systems, which allow people to make payments with their mobile devices, do more than just facilitate an additional form of payment. They offer impressive speed and convenience, substantial security measures (including encryption and tokenization), unmatched privacy, enhanced cleanliness, and more.
Other advantages of integrating a mobile payment system into your salon include:
- Boosted sales. The ease, convenience, and facilitation of cashless payments all work together to drive sales and attract customers who value tech-centric businesses.
- Improved efficiency. Because mobile payments reduce the reliance on cash and help negate fraud, your salon can hum along with increased efficiency.
- Data insights. Accepting mobile payments allows you to gather consumer data and make business decisions based on those insights.
- Flexible payments. If you are a mobile beauty pro or offer products and services away from your salon (at events, for example), accepting mobile payments is incredibly convenient.
- Enhanced experience. Keeping your clients happy is a must, and the ease of mobile payments can go a long way to boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.
GlossGenius
Designed with beauty pros in mind, GlossGenius is a platform that not only enables you to accept mobile payments but also integrates a host of other valuable features that range from appointment scheduling to marketing solutions. The goal of GlossGenius is simple: leverage technology to allow beauty pros like you to focus on your passion rather than administrative tasks.
One of the key aspects of GlossGenius that sets it apart from other mobile payment systems for salons is that it caters to beauty pros. While other options may work for salons or have a small portion of their platform dedicated to helping beauty businesses excel, GlossGenius understands the beauty industry because it is committed to it.
In summary, GlossGenius offers a mobile payment system and includes other benefits:
- Integrate additional features (like appointment scheduling)
- Caters to beauty pros (so they understand your business needs)
- Elite Beauty Society members can access exclusive discounts on GlossGenius, giving you both the insurance and tools your beauty biz needs to thrive.
"Mobile payment systems offer impressive speed and convenience, substantial security measures (including encryption and tokenization), unmatched privacy, enhanced cleanliness, and more."
Clover
As another platform that facilitates both online booking and flexible payment options, Clover is a compelling option for service-based businesses like salons. In addition to these two essential features, Clover boasts real-time inventory tracking and sales insights, giving you impressive control over the details of your business.
One of Clover’s biggest standout strengths is its flexibility — you can choose from multiple hardware options depending on how you work.
Whether you prefer a sleek countertop POS system, a handheld mobile device for on-the-go checkout, or a full touchscreen register for high-traffic salons, Clover allows you to tailor the client experience to your space. This makes it especially useful for salons that offer retail products, add-ons, and impulse-purchase checkout displays, as everything syncs cleanly in one system.
Clover also integrates with loyalty programs, gift cards, appointment scheduling add-ons, and marketing tools, allowing beauty pros to reward repeat clients and increase retention with minimal manual effort. For salon owners who want a scalable payment system with thoughtful business-growth features, Clover is a powerful option that balances payment processing with smart operational support.
You can even choose from a variety of hardware options, allowing you to tailor your in-person customer experience specifically to your needs and clientele.
Square
There may not be a more recognizable mobile payment system than Square. You can find it everywhere, from coffee shops and food trucks to retail stores and stadiums. In other words, it is a well-established brand that is trusted by businesses of all sizes and industries.
What makes Square so compelling is how quickly beauty pros can get up and running. The hardware setup is simple, the software is intuitive, and accepting payments can be as easy as using a free card reader that plugs into your phone. From there, stylists and salon owners can expand into Square Terminal or Square Register if they prefer a more permanent in-salon checkout setup.
Beyond payments, Square provides appointment scheduling, inventory management, digital receipts, marketing automation, and client history tracking. Pros can also sell retail products directly through Square, create membership packages, or offer recurring billing for beauty subscriptions and maintenance appointments, making it ideal for stylists who want stable monthly revenue.
Its hardware is sleek and versatile, the setup is easy, the features are streamlined and proven, and the software is intuitive.
Fresha
Fresha has quickly grown into one of the most popular booking and payment tools for salons and beauty professionals — and for good reason. Unlike many platforms that charge subscription fees, Fresha offers its core booking and payment features without a monthly cost, making it an attractive option for small salons and independent pros who want to keep overhead low while still operating with streamlined technology.
Beyond payment processing, Fresha includes stuff like:
- online scheduling
- automated reminders
- review management
- retail checkout tools
And it's all designed to help beauty entrepreneurs run smoother, more organized businesses. One standout feature users love is Fresha’s built-in no-show and late cancellation protection, giving you more control over revenue and fewer gaps in your calendar.
For growing salons that prioritize marketing and client retention, Fresha also offers paid add-ons like marketplace visibility and advanced marketing tools. This makes it easy to scale as your business expands, whether you’re building a team or boosting product sales. If you’re looking for a payment solution that doubles as a client-experience platform (and that won’t ask for monthly software fees to get started), Fresha is a solid contender worth exploring.
Shopify
If your salon sells retail, bundles, online classes, or aftercare products, Shopify might be one of the most powerful platforms you can integrate into your business. While Shopify is known globally as an e-commerce leader, beauty pros are increasingly using it as a dual system – both for in-person POS checkout and for online retail and booking.
Shopify’s hardware options, customizable checkout pages, and built-in analytics make it ideal for salons that want to track sales performance, monitor product trends, and automate marketing campaigns.
You can connect your inventory to social platforms like Instagram and TikTok, offer local pickup or shipping, and even generate discount codes and loyalty programs to boost repeat business.
For salon owners who want to expand into merch or create a digital storefront beyond service booking, Shopify offers unmatched scalability.
Whether you’re selling shampoo sets, brow kits, or branded blow-dry brushes, Shopify makes it easy to build passive revenue streams that support your service income. If your long-term vision includes retail growth (online or inside your salon) Shopify is a platform worth considering.
No matter what mobile payment system you choose for your salon, learning how to leverage the data, market the convenience, and streamline your customer experience are all tremendous benefits. While a small part of the big picture, a mobile payment system can truly revolutionize how you do business and the satisfaction your customers enjoy.
For more beauty industry news, tips, and tricks, subscribe to Elite Beauty Society. You can also peruse our blog, where we share our expertise and resources with you on a regular basis.
Meet Hanna Marcus, the Founder and Head Copy Gal behind Boundless Copy, a one-of-a-kind copywriting agency that specializes in big, bold brand voice and industry-disrupting copy that’s all about resonating with the right audience.
Hanna has proudly teamed up with Elite Beauty Society for several years as their go-to copywriter on all things beauty, small biz marketing, and brand voice development. She’s big on feeling-first writing–her personal soapbox is that the best copy starts with telling a story.
When she’s not writing cheeky, converting copy for clients, she’s mentoring other aspiring copywriters and creating digital copywriting resources designed for service pros and focused on taking the stress out of DIY copywriting.
