Global Payments on song payment solutions

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Today’s cutting-edge technology has added teeth to the payments ecosystem world over and the transaction exercise is a cakewalk in most cases these days. More so, if it is companies like Global Payments Inc., of United Kingdom where Steve McArdle occupies a key position.

Companies like Global Payments offer all the payment instruments attributes that serves the end-users’ purpose. And when it is comes to electronic point of sale (EPOS) Global Payments is second to none.

Steve McArdle is the Director of Stadia and Venues at Global Payments, UK. He joined the team at Global Payments in 2020, following a distinguished career in stadium technology and card payments within the stadia and venue sector.

In an interaction with ‘Coliseum’, Steve McArdle, Director, Stadia and Venues, Global Payments Inc., UK, asserts that if stadia can ensure speed in service, which includes ease of payment, it will serve the venues in good stead and will meet dual purposes – accelerating the fan experiences and driving revenue.
 

Global Payments

The Global Payments is a Fortune 500® payments technology company delivering the leading complete worldwide commerce ecosystem. Its unique, connected infrastructure unifies every aspect of commerce, from issuer solutions to payments, and the innovative software that delivers seamless customer experiences.

Informed Steve McArdle, “Global Payments are the fourth largest credit card processing business in the world. We operate in 31 countries and we transact in 76 currencies with 24,000 staff. We can facilitate 8,000 card transactions in a second.”

The company has “a huge appetite to invest in the stadia and the sporting sector and we bring to the table the electronic point of sale (EPOS), software and the hardware and also the card payment platform.”

Every sporting clubs or venues want to provide out-of-the-world experiences to fans and Global Payments ensures that the supporters can carry out transaction in split-seconds when it comes to food and beverage (F&B), retail merchandise and ticketing.
 

EPOS

The electronic points of sale (EPOS) systems are digital payments systems that enable businesses to process payments, interact with customers and store data. They are often used in retail stores, restaurants, hotels, and other service-oriented businesses.
 

Spoilt for Choice

When it comes to F&B, most venues today leave Gen Z spoilt for choice. It is here that Global Payments play a key role as they facilitate fans to order from their hospitality seats and get the food delivered to their seats and make the payment as well and saves them the trouble of getting up, going to the kiosk during halftime and ordering food. Gone are the days of serpentine queues, now everything can be ordered from the seat at a click of the mobile phone-QR code and one does not have to miss out on the pitch action or scintillating concert moments.

As McArdle describes, “Global Payments has taken that order-and-pay away from the kiosk”.

Steamy hot food and the choicest of drinks are delivered right to the supporters’ seats.

He added that Global Payments solutions products are – EPOS, mobile EPOS, service tools, order-on-your phone, retail sales, pre-order, the hardware and the software, and the payment solutions as well.

He further informed, “We have developed our EPOS system now to read a season ticket or radio frequency identification (RFID) very quickly. We basically go to one’s database, we apply the discounts to the F&B and then we send the information details. At the end of the day, it is all about recognizing and rewarding your fan base.”
 

Sunderland A.F.C. (Case Study)

 

Sunderland A.F.C.

The Sunderland Association Football Club is an English professional football club based in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, UK. Formed in 1879, Sunderland plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club has won six top-flight titles in the First Division, and has finished runners-up five times.
 

Stadium of Light

The Stadium of Light is an all-seater football stadium in Sunderland, England (UK), and the current home to Sunderland A.F.C. With space for 49,000 spectators, the Stadium of Light is the ninth largest football stadium in England. The stadium primarily hosts Sunderland A.F.C. home matches.

Maintained McArdle, “The Sunderland Football Club has a huge appetite in hospitality and averages over 40,000 crowds. The stadium boasts 54 Executive Boxes, seven huge hospitality lounges and these guys can generate some serious revenue through hospitality and also through that normal F&B catering environment. Global Payments wants to deploy EPOS payment solution across the entire venue infrastructure.”

Last year, Global Payments installed the universal EPOS payment solution at the Stadium of Light which included retail merchandise, F&B, face-to-face, online, and everything within the Global Payments infrastructure – “Not only that. We future-proofed the data capture as a result of which not only did the club sell in more products but every transaction was almost 38 percent higher. It was a huge success story scripted by us.”
 

Best-in-class Hospitality

Global Payments has given a leg-up to the hospitality services at the Stadium of Light – “We introduced different products in their (Sunderland A.F.C.) hospitality portfolio and facilitated fans to take orders and place orders before they arrived at the stadium. They could also scan the QR code at the table, have food ordered and delivered to the suite or to the table and this resulted in massive incremental revenue and enchanting fan experience.”
 

Advantage Self-order Kiosks

The Global Payments are now deploying a lot of self-service kiosks across major stadiums – “The objective is that when it comes to increased yields, every transaction value is higher on a self-service kiosk than a traditional kiosk. Labor cost is the real benefit as it comes down by 60 percent as the order-and-payment part is taken away from the kiosk and the EPOS does the magic.”
 

Sum-up

Steve McArdle concluded by stating, “The next few years will see the traditional kiosks disappear from the stadia and self-service and order-by-phone will be the in-thing. Global Payments is trying to make the digital journey even more delightful for the fans in the venues so that the control is in their hands and our integrated payments system makes for a great digital relationship. The need of the hour is that venues must equip themselves with state-of-the-art technology as ‘Speed is Service’ and on gamedays every second matters and will also help to keep venues’ cash registers jingling.”

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• Global Payments
• payments
• Steve McArdle
• United Kingdom

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