More than 6,600 athletes from 70 nations and 100,000 visitors attended the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, eager to “be there” when sporting history was made. After putting lots of effort, time and money into planning and setting up the infrastructure for such a large scale event, it is no surprise that having the Games run smoothly for 11 days was the organizers’ main goal.

At the economic heart of modern sporting arenas are the busy retailers selling drinks, food and merchandise to fans that have come on holiday to watch the action. Visa’s recent Global Travel Intentions study revealed that 77 percent of respondents still preferred to rely on cash when on holiday, which for the retailers means handling millions of cash transactions daily. So, do the Games themselves deserve a medal for cash handling and the customer experience?

Queue Busting

To manage the queues, customers need to be served quickly and efficiently, but speed can lead to mistakes, as cashiers make change for customers in a hurry to get to the next person in the line; all anxious to get back to the sporting action. Intelligent cash drawers, like the SMARTtill Solution, can offer a very powerful cash management tool to all retailers to reduce cash losses by up to 90% through its automatic real-time cash reconciliation feature. Using technology to prevent the majority of errors at the POS means that cashiers, retailers and customers will avoid being short-changed; making it a much happier event for everyone, which at the end of the day is what matters most.

Business and Sport Alike

Time is everything in retail, as it is for the heroes of the Games, the actual athletes, where often only seconds separate the great from the world class. Retail stores using the SMARTtill Solution earn the gold medal in the cash handling arena by racing ahead of the competition by saving significant amounts of time through automation of cash counts and audit trails.

Just how successful cash handling processes were at the Games has yet to be revealed. However, if you are currently assessing how to accelerate your cash handling procedures, whilst improving both the customer experience and security, contact APG Cash Drawer for a demonstration of how their latest solutions can help to achieve your goals.