Businesses sending out event registration forms to clients and customers should not miss out on the opportunity to add payment capabilities to the relevant section, as it could mean a significant boost to actual day attendance levels.
Traditionally, event organisers offer multi-mode payment options: Check, bank transfer or pay at the door. Event organisers are also warming up to the idea of online payment as an added option, with Paypal being a popular option. But what about limiting payment options to just online to guarantee actual day turnout, which also helps to ensure that your exhibitors are happy with the on-site exposure and engagement.
Traditional event payment options may just trigger a different set of behavior compared to online payment
This goes towards the school of thought: If there is no cost, I can just skip the event due to last-minute urgencies. I recently registered for an event and opted not to pay online, since option to pay at door is available (and there is no stated penalties for no-show). As there is a last minute internal meeting called (though not critically urgent), I decided to forego the event, since there is no penalties involved, and there are similar alternative events from which I can pick up the necessary knowledge. But what will my mental state be if I am forced to pay online (which I probably would)? Since the meeting is internal, I will probably state that I had paid for an event and we could probably have the meeting the next day.
This ability to pay immediately , and on both desktop and mobile may be more important than you think. According to a report from Adyen – the global payments solutions company – covering May to August 2012, mobile payment transactions on its own platforms jumped by 27 per cent worldwide compared to last year.
Europe and North America were found to be leading the way when it came to paying via mobile devices.
Even more crucially, mobile ticketing purchases for concerts, shows and other events represented 18.3 per cent of all ticketing purchases, up from 15 per cent.
Most of these buyers were using smartphones when they decided to purchase thanks to the ability to avoid queues, receive their ticket immediately – and pay on the spot.
For event organisers, online payment guarantee revenue collection, less administrative resources for payment follow-up, faster check-in process on event day, higher attendance rate, and happier exhibitors due to a positive turnout.
Still considering? Try it out on a smaller-scale event to test this out. I bet you will be in for a pleasant surprise.
