GVB Gappie app
Seamless ticket payments in Amsterdam’s travel app
The GVB Gappie app is the all-in-one travel app from Amsterdam’s public transport company GVB. With the app, travelers can plan their journey, view real-time departure times, and directly purchase public transport tickets for travel in and around Amsterdam.
The app is positioned as “your indispensable travel companion” : a personal travel assistant for various target groups, including commuters, students, Amsterdam residents, tourists, and occasional travelers. With the free GVB app Gappie you can easily plan your journey from any address in the Netherlands, receive reliable and up-to-date travel information from all public transport operators in the Netherlands and quickly and easily purchase a ticket that also allows you to check in and out directly.
Results
By combining journey planning and ticket payments in one digital environment, GVB has created a conversion-focused travel experience. Key results:
- €13.2 million in revenue from app ticket sales (grown from virtually €0 in just 4 years)
- Approximately 4.7-star App Store rating based on thousands of reviews, a strong indicator of user satisfaction
- 15+ million app visits per year, from both daily commuters and international visitors
- 1.5+ million digital transactions per year, with a clear upward growth trend
- A demonstrably faster and more intuitive ticket purchasing experience directly from the journey planner
The challenge
In 2021, GVB completely redesigned its existing app. The app evolved from being solely a travel information channel into a full-service app that also included a ticket shop and customer service. What started as an additional feature quickly grew into a new sales channel with a direct impact on revenue and customer behavior. This mainly concerns hourly, day, and multi-day tickets, primarily purchased by tourists and day visitors.
By 2025, this channel represents €13.2 million in revenue, growing from virtually €0 in 2021. A clear indication that mobile ticket sales have become a substantial and scalable sales channel.
To support this growth and further optimize conversion, GVB redesigned the ordering and payment flow. This also included the implementation of a new payment provider in the form of Buckaroo.
Three key factors played an important role in selecting Buckaroo:
- Frictionless payments: buying tickets needed to be just as easy as planning a journey.
- Mobile-first experience: payments needed to work seamlessly within a mobile app environment.
- Increasing conversion: encouraging more travelers to purchase their tickets directly in the app.
In addition, the platform needed to support different target groups, including international tourists who use different payment methods than Dutch travelers.
The solution
With Buckaroo, GVB can fully integrate all payments into the Gappie app. The payment flow seamlessly aligns with the customer journey of the user:
- The user plans a journey in the app.
- The app displays the best travel options and relevant ticket types.
- The user purchases a ticket directly within the app.
Thanks to Buckaroo’s payment offering, GVB can easily support multiple payment methods and provide a smooth mobile checkout experience.
“Buckaroo offers us a wide range of new payment methods, allowing us to attract new target audiences. For example, we are already seeing that half of all payments are made via Apple Pay, and we expect this number to continue growing in the future.”
– Robin Nicolaas, Manager Passenger Communication at GVB
Why this works
The success of the Gappie app lies in its so-called hyper-local context. As the public transport operator, we are the first to know what is happening in and around Amsterdam and can offer a number of unique features:
- Always the most up-to-date travel information, even while you are already on your journey
- Plan your journey both within and outside Amsterdam using the nationwide 9292 journey planner
- Receive a notification in case of disruptions on your regular route or when an elevator or escalator is out of service at your boarding, transfer, or arrival stop
- Context-related notifications
- Purchase and immediate use of e-tickets
This creates one integrated digital travel experience in which payment is not an interruption, but a natural part of the flow. As a result, drop-off during the purchase process is reduced.
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The role of payments in the travel experience
For mobility apps, payments are no longer just a supporting feature, but a direct driver of conversion and revenue. As soon as users plan their journey, they also expect to be able to purchase their ticket immediately. By integrating payments into the customer journey GVB is able to:
- demonstrably increase ticket sales conversion
- minimize friction in the purchasing process
- provide a consistent and fast mobile payment experience aligned with user expectations
Result: a smart mobility app where journey planning, service, and payments come together in one user-friendly experience.
“ With the Gappie app, GVB demonstrates how mobility and digital payments are increasingly converging. As a Google Pay partner, we help GVB make mobile wallet payments accessible to travelers, making purchasing a ticket just as easy as planning your journey. .”
Flip Roose | Buckaroo
