Digital Ordering Could Nearly Double Event Concessions’ Average Bill
According to in-seat ordering platform Ordr, live event venues can nearly treble attendees’ spending by meeting their digitally connected clients’ desire for speed and ease.
In an interview, platform CEO and co-founder Jade Chiles discussed how order-to-seat and mobile payment solutions increase consumer spending at baseball, hockey and basketball stadiums.
“One thing that you know I was quite surprised about is we’re seeing on average 96% more spent on the Ordr app than the traditional belly-up [traditional concessions counter] per capita,” Chiles said. “We really attribute that to the convenience and the stress and the pressure of having to stand in line.”
Chiles highlighted that instead of feeling rushed at concessions stands with large lineups, shoppers may relax and buy more.
Ordr’s personalised recommendations and vendor feedback allow upselling.
As tech improves, live event venues want more convenient concessions. Amazon’s Just Walk Out, Uber Eats’ ordering, payment, and in-seat delivery, and Instacart’s computer vision self-checkout are giving MLB teams more frictionless checkout alternatives.
Consumers seem to spend more overall when making purchases digitally across industries, either because the lack of friction makes the amount they are spending seem less visible or because they know they won’t have to carry their items home (or to their stadium seats, in the case of event concessions).
In an April survey of a census-balanced panel of nearly 2,700 U.S. consumers, “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Catching the Coming eCommerce Wave,” created in collaboration with Amazon Web Services, found that consumers spend $88 on in-store grocery purchases and $116 on digital grocery purchases. They spend $129 online and $87 in-store.
Live event locations seem to prioritise seat time. In-seat delivery is 77% more popular than mobile order-ahead pickup on Ordr.
“That’s because the pain of missing a moment in sports is universal across all sorts of different venues,” Ordr COO and Co-founder Evan Wain said.
Consumers are getting used to on-demand delivery. “Connected Dining: Third-Party Restaurant Aggregators Keep the Young and Affluent Engaged,” an exclusive analysis based on a March survey of over 2,200 U.S. customers, found that 40% had used aggregators in the past six months, up from 37% in April 2022.
In-stadium delivery adoption still has to be driven.
“[With] in-stadium delivery, we’re really back in 2013, in terms of adoption across the nation,” Wain said. “There’s a ton of growth in in this space for people to take advantage of.”
