The Arena Management Conference (AMC) just wrapped up, and among sessions covering branding lessons from U2 and AC/DC, evacuating 50 guests in wheelchairs, the art of building (and negotiating) a new venue, and handling local civil unrest, attendees also looked at upcoming shifts in POS technology and fraud liability.
Regarding credit card transactions, a major “liability shift” beginning next month is the notable change that venue managers need to understand.
Brandi Kler, senior vice president of product management for Allure Global Solutions, presented to AMC attendees an overview of the upcoming change, which begins in October 2015 and shifts liability for fraudulent credit card charges away from the banks and onto any vendor that swipes a chip card instead of dipping it into a chip reader.
The change, driven by security needs and $8.5 billion of annual credit card fraud in the U.S., requires a close look at current POS systems and potential financial risk, but it also signals (and will likely accelerate) the approaching era of mainstream, mobile payment technology.
The EMV chip cards are slow, require several steps, and as Kler pointed out in her AMC session, introduce a clunky consumer experience that has consumers already asking, “Why can’t I just use my phone?”
And this question is about to be asked by a lot of people.
(Slide: Brandi Kler, Allure Global, 2015 Arena Management Conference)
Not only is the younger population growing, it is growing with mobile technology firmly in-hand. Generation Z (<19 years old, 25.9 percent of the population) has had technology in their hands since birth, and by the end of this year, 33 percent of Millenials (20-37 years old, 24.5 percent of the population) will have an active mobile wallet (increasing the number of mobile payment consumers from 5 percent currently to 18 percent in the coming year).
That means that it will not be long before the majority of your guests will be expecting a mobile payment experience.
As Brian France, CEO of Nascar, states, “Everybody’s ability to manage and figure out the Millennial fan and how that continues to unfold this year and over the long term is the most important issue in sports business.”
For more information on EMV, here is a quick summary.
For more information on mobile payment, learn from the current leader who saw 16 percent of their transactions happen on a mobile phone last year.
