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1. Helps Your Event Become More Sustainable
Last year the EU ruled that single-use plastics are forbidden for use across most European markets. So yes, that also applies to plastic tokens and cups at events. Event organizers need to be prepared and a reliable recycling system is needed.
Imagine facilitating a recycling system with tokens. You have to work with deposits, but since deposits are only a percentage of the purchase price, prices will result in half or even quarter coins. Not to mention the math for employees each time a cup is returned.
To solve this, our cash register has a deposit module that supports a recycling system. With this system, a visitor receives a bamboo token (or any other attribute) when arriving at the event and can exchange this for a cup. When giving back this cup in the next round no money is charged, which is automatically calculated by the system. The advantage of this includes fewer plastic cups on the floor, a much smaller impact on pollution, and, generally, much less plastic used.
Of course, the most obvious reason why cashless is also more sustainable is the fact that you no longer have to produce hundreds of thousands of plastic coins. This is also a great advantage for the visitor as they can no longer lose them, not only good for the environment but also for their wallet.
2. Boost Spending of Your Visitors
Now as an event organizer you probably think, that those lost and forgotten tokens (the ones that event-goers bought but didn't use and now wander somewhere on their nightstands) are an important revenue stream.
First of all, these leftover tokens are an awful bummer for your visitors and do not contribute to the overall experience, you should not aim for that. But more interesting, eventually the spending of your visitors is way higher when using cashless than when using tokens. So, this completely recovers the turnover of the "forgotten" token.
MIT researcher Drazen Prelec recently conducted a study that found people spending their money through their cards were likely to spend twice as much as cash buyers. Mostly due to them finding delivering hard cash to a bartender hurts more than just pressing some plastic to a machine.
3. Lower Operational Costs
In the first place, setting up a cashless infrastructure seems rather expensive. However, cash handling expenses also don’t come cheap. By eradicating cash payments, you eliminate the costs associated with handling and transporting cash. Cashless means there’s no longer a need to order, count, or weigh tokens and cash, which will save you time and eventually money in the form of staff costs.
4. Receive Valuable Insights
Probably the most valuable benefit is that organizers have access to a lot of useful statistics via simple dashboards.
Take, for example, the benefits of having access to real-time insights during the event itself, which enables you to potentially optimize staff and inventory if you see a certain bar or food outlet is popular. By analyzing this data afterward, you can also optimize how you run your next event, for example, creating bigger bars, replacing certain outlets, optimizing the inventory, improving routing, or creating a deal with a sponsor that proved popular last time around.
While token systems would simply leave you with a bunch of tokens per bar at the end of the day, with digital payments you have a greater awareness of product sales across different levels such as bars, zones, employees, products, time range, peak moments, and more.
5. Provide Safer and More Hygienic Events
At a cashless event, all transactions are done from a visitor’s personal device, meaning there is no cash or tokens exchanging hands physically – this is an ideal factor for those who worry about the potential super-spreading of germs or a virus, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19. It also ensures your event is future-proof against any other potential threats caused by physical contact which we might come across in years to come.
6. Improve the Visitor Experience
Although tokens are quite nostalgic for many festival-goers, they were known for their inefficiency at times. By replacing physical tokens with digital transactions, eventgoers don’t need to withdraw cash at the venue or take wads of cash to the event with them to then stand in an extra line to do the swap. They also don’t run the risk of forgetting to switch the tokens back to cash before they leave.
In addition, cashless systems can also process orders faster, reducing long queues and allowing visitors to continue partying with a drink in their hand.
7. Increase Security: Less Theft and Fraud
With fewer eventgoers carrying around cash, there’ll be less chance of violent crimes and theft occurring. This won’t only just remove certain risks but will provide both merchants and customers with better peace of mind while visiting the event space and thus retain your reputation.
The added benefit here is that there’s a lower chance of fraud happening because it’s more difficult for staff to provide free drinks or give away tokens to their friends that happen to be at the event.
Conditions for a Great Cash Register
The bar is where the magic happens. While ticketing is where event organizers break-even, onsite is where they can really drive sales and make a decent profit. When you go cashless, you need to make sure you choose the right software to do so.
CM.com offers a scalable and easy-to-use cash register that helps you process orders at lightning speed. Visit our website to discover more or get in touch with our team!
