The current pandemic has changed the way people discover and pay for goods and services. During the COVID-19 crisis, cash has taken a backseat while contactless payments have become consumers’ preferred option.
A study of mobile wallets by the University of Illinois found users make contactless purchases at a rate of 23% higher than those who pay with physical cash or cards and spend 2.4% more per transaction. Business owners that proactively veered away from cash transactions have discovered additional benefits along the way.
Why go “contactless” for parking transactions?
Parking is often the first impression of service at any given destination. Businesses that offer contactless payment options in their parking lots promote a safer, more straightforward arrival experience for customers, protect staff, reduce costs, and increase revenue.
ParkHub works with Live Nation at 45 amphitheaters across the United States with the focus of getting customers parked and into the venue as quickly as possible. With the recent concerts taking place in the venues’ parking lots, the value of digitized parking inventory has increased.
What are the advantages?
Top three advantages for customers:
- Faster, safer parking
- No cash to handle or paper tickets to hold
- The ability to secure parking in advance or pay without physical contact onsite
Top three advantages for operations:
- Faster, safer parking
- No cash to handle or paper tickets to hold
- The ability to secure parking in advance or pay without physical contact onsite
What are contactless payment options for parking?
- NFC payments: NFC stands for Near-Field Communication. These contactless payments occur between POS devices and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- Contactless EMV: EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard®, and Visa® and refers to payments facilitated by cards featuring an embedded chip, such as contactless “tap to pay” transactions.
- Prepaid parking reservations: Parking reservation applications, such as SpotHero, ParkMobile, and Arrive, allow consumers to safely secure and pay for parking in advance of their arrival.
How cashless operations affect the bottom line
Consider the results from Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s transition to a cashless model in 2019, prior to when the pandemic took hold: roughly 95 percent of fans noticed the same or an increase in speed at concession lines and the stadium reported an increase in food and beverage per capita numbers while saving more than $350,000 in operational expenses.
Going cashless and contactless with ParkHub
While a pivot in processes can seem intimidating, ParkHub’s products help make the transition as fluid as possible.
- Mobile Point-of-Sale: ParkHub’s proprietary mPOS device, Prime, promotes cashless payments, including credit card and NFC payments (Apple Pay / Google Pay. Our optimal solution, Prime EMV, offers contactless EMV transactions with the highest level of PCI-compliance and P2PE.
- Integrations with Prepaid Parking Reservation Providers: ParkHub integrates with ticketing and parking reservation providers to authenticate prepaid parking reservations in real time, paving a frictionless customer journey.
- Business Intelligence: Suite, ParkHub’s BI tool, hosts numerous applications that help parking operators monitor real-time operational and transactional data, access robust performance analytics, and manage VIP guests.
- ParkHub Pay: ParkHub’s holistic payment solution protects guests and hard-earned revenue by offering secure payment processing, simplified rates, and consolidated transaction data.
Make the leap
Ready to future-proof your parking and event operations? Reach out to one of our solutions experts to set up a free demo or read more about our products here.