As a consumer you have seen and perhaps used a captive portal when you were hanging out in a coffee shop or while waiting for a flight at the airport. Usually, an email address or zip code is required to connect to a wireless network. Meanwhile, businesses like coffee shops, cafes, bars and restaurants are in the position to offer WiFi connectivity, a space to work and be productive with a purchase and WiFi time limits.
This guide will walk you through the benefits of using a captive portal to grow your business and create opportunities to sell more.

Beyond wireless network controls, GoGoGuest gated WiFi is similar to a microsite. Businesses are able to integrate with their POS system, showcase information about products, services and offerings.
Reasons A Captive Portal Is Essential To Your Business
Guest access to wireless networks are offered by businesses of any size. This guide will walk you through the benefits of branding and securing your WiFi network.
- Different types. There are two distinct types of captive portals: 1) focused on 100% growing email lists and number of visits. 2) An innovative and robust captive portal that is part of a complete customer engagement toolset and integrates with your POS system. 3) A captive portal that does 1 and 2 really well.
- Why should your business require a purchase before a guest can connect to your guest WiFi? With limited dine-in space and guest usable space due to the pandemic, maintaining your physical storefront becomes costly. A gated WiFi connected to your POS or is part of a contact-less check-in and ordering workflow easily brings 21% more revenue. GoGoGuest offers different captive portal options.
- Who collects the payment from a purchase associated with WiFi? With GoGoGuest, 100% of payments go directly to your business’ POS system. Our captive portal comes with a seamless integration with Square POS, Toast Lab, Revel, Clover and any other cloud POS technology. We can also integrate with other payment platforms like Stripe and PayPal!
- Enforce your guest wireless network policy without the hassle. A WiFi captive portal is a friendly handshake between your business and your customer. If you prefer, it can be set-up with specific time limits and application restrictions that prevent long-hours of video streaming from popular video streaming sites like Netflix, You Tube, Hulu, iTunes and Disney. These options empower your business to set clear guest WiFi connectivity boundaries without placing the stress on your front-of-the-house teams.
- Comes with multi-channel forms. A GoGoGuest subscription comes with landing page forms, forms for your your website, your app or an iPad. This feature allows each business to funnel all your email lists into one place vs. keeping your customer lists in your Google drive, your computer or an email account that you hardly use. The benefit? If your business used to rely 100% on physical storefront sales, you can now easily inform to customers about your online ordering or your new eCommerce store!
- Smart subscriber tags. Each subscriber is automatically tagged when they land in your GoGoGuest customer engagement dashboard. For example, guests who came through the captive portal are tagged #GoGoGuest WiFi, meanwhile guests who came from your website are tagged #GoGoGuest Web. These tags give you the opportunity to send personalized and specific content to each of your customer groups.
- Access your lists and data any time. If you are not too focused on personalization of your content and prefer to send offers direct from your POS, you may download your lists and data any time. It is as easy as pressing a button!
- Activate and engage your audience. Advanced captive portal technology comes with built-in and robust customer engagement toolsets . Each time a new guest or a previous guest comes back, the system is able to detect that. This is a great opportunity for up-selling, introducing new products or simply asking your customer to give you a like on social media!
- Access to an ecosystem of integrations. Advanced captive portal technologies offer third-party integrations. This is specially useful if you have a multi-location business across many markets, want to create a connected experience for your guests from the moment they check-in, place an order, connect to your guest WiFi and claim a reward!
Businesses of any size that sell from a physical storefront like coffee shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, quick service retailers and retailers can optimize systems you already use, elevate your guest experience and gain new opportunities to sell more.
About GoGoGuest
GoGoGuest is the complete customer engagement and analytics software platform for businesses who sell from physical stores and online. GoGoGuest captures and analyzes existing data streams from Point of Sale systems, eCommerce platforms, Wi-Fi systems, and Third-Party applications to provide businesses with key insights for precise marketing, faster and confident operational decisions and revenue management. Our story.