Going cashless
Behavioural data, accurate sales figures, faster visitor entry – EN checks
out the benefits of making the move away from cash payments
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ontactless payment is becoming an accepted fact of life
in the UK. While you might occasionally come across
the occasional vendor demanding cash payments, or
God forbid the now eternal-seeming chip and pin entry,
contactless has undeniably sped up the payment process.
And, of course, it was practically inevitable that this trend
would make the move over to the events industry. When we
talk about cashless events and venues, that can either mean
encouraging customers to pay with bank cards rather than
cash, or it can mean providing a branded cashless solution.
Tappit is just one of the companies in the industry specialising
in radio-frequency identification (RFID) cashless solutions.
“Working with us can deliver benefits like reduced queues,
quicker transaction times and enhanced payment security,”
comments Tappit CEO Jason Thomas. “We also provide event
organisers with the tools and insight to improve their events,
working closely alongside them to analyse the data and make
suggested changes to ensure that the fans of these events
have the best possible time.
Tappit extended its shirt sponsorship deal at Bury FC’s
Energy Check Stadium at Gigg Lane by three years in early
2018. The deal also saw Bury FC season cards have been
loaded onto Tappit cards to be used by fans to quickly and
easily enter the grounds.
“It has been really exciting working with BFC, as well as our
other football partners,” continues Thomas. “With Bury, they
were the first to see the benefits of implementing cashless
at their ground. Our partnership has enabled us to work
closely with the team and see that, regardless of your league
or size of your crowd, the benefits of going cashless provide
are appreciated by fans and help the club understand their
audience. The club is seeing the value already – less queues,
faster transactions, easier reporting and, most importantly,
the fans are getting a better experience.”
The reporting element – allowing
organisers and venues to gain important
behavioural information about their
visitors and fans – may be of
particular interest in an age
where audience data is
February 2019 | exhibitionnews.co.uk
growing in importance. With cashless Tappit cards, organisers
are able to see real-time crowd behaviour and track sales.
“It is a misconception that implementing a cashless system
is going to be time consuming and require complex IT
implementation,” adds Thomas. “We would advise our clients
to embrace the possibility of change as cashless technology
can now be integrated quickly, utilising existing systems and
without disruption or downtime.”
The other option for moving into the cashless world is
encouraging visitors to move away from cash towards card
payments at events. This was a process implemented by
Amadeus, the NEC Group caterer, at the Resorts World Arena
from November 2017.
“As part of the cashless drive, Amadeus removed cash from
all EPOS tills on F&B concessions to encourage customers
to pay by card (contactless or chip and pin), with one mobile
POS cash till per concession in reserve just in case customers
could not pay by card,” explains Kevin Watson, managing
director, Amadeus. “Many people attending events still
believe that they need to bring cash with them to pay for
food and drinks so we launched a marketing campaign
named ‘Queue less, miss less, cashless’, designed to influence
customer behaviour – and get visitors to leave their cash at
home.
“Following this we saw a dramatic shift in purchasing
patterns. Prior to the initiative, 70 per cent of F&B
transactions were being paid for in cash – since November
2017, this has reduced to just 15 per cent, with 85 per cent of
transactions being made on card.”
Following the success of the initiative at Resorts World
Arena, Amadeus launched the ‘Queue less, miss less, cashless’
initiative at the NEC in early 2018, which saw all Amadeus run
food and drink outlets go cashless.
“The initiative has been designed to benefit the customer by
helping to reduce queues, allowing them to enjoy more time
at the event or exhibition they came to visit,” says Watson.
“Cashless has been so successful that we decided to roll out
the initiative across all the venues we cater for.”
When it comes to the future of cashless, concludes
Thomas, the industry will only be continuing to embrace the
technology.
“We’re seeing events venues themselves becoming
increasingly tech friendly and in some cases tech-first,”
he tells EN . “Our plans are to invest significantly in
technology over the next three years and we have a
number of exciting developments to be announced, all
aimed at improving events for both the event organiser
and the fan. We are also keeping a close eye on blockchain
in ticketing, virtual reality and e-sports – there are huge
opportunities to take entertainment to a whole new level.”
EN