Planning Your Christmas Market? Why a Cashless Solution Should Be Top of Your List

It may only be early September, but for anyone in the events industry, the sleigh bells are already ringing loud and clear. Planning for the festive season is in full swing, and your focus is on creating a magical, bustling Christmas market experience. You’re thinking about the scent of mulled wine, the twinkling lights, and the unique crafts from local artisans.

But what about the queues? The fumbling for loose change, the security risks of cash-filled tills, and the long waits that dampen the festive spirit?

If you want to elevate your 2025 market from good to great, a cashless payment and rewards solution should be at the very top of your planning list.

The Problem with Piles of Cash

Traditional cash-based sales at a busy market create friction for everyone:

• For Visitors: Long queues and the need to constantly visit a cash machine are frustrating.
  

• For Vendors: Handling large amounts of cash is slow and risky. Cashing up at the end of a long, cold day is a headache they could do without.
  

• For You, the Organiser: You have no real data. You don’t know which stalls are the most popular, how long people are staying, or what your visitors’ average spend is.

The Power of a ‘Closed-Loop’ System

A modern solution is a ‘closed-loop’ cashless system. Instead of every vendor needing their own card machine, the entire market runs on a unified digital token or voucher system.

Visitors can pre-buy digital credits online or purchase them at a central point upon arrival. These are loaded onto a digital pass on their phone, which they use to pay at each stall with a simple QR code scan. It’s faster, safer, and provides you with a wealth of anonymous data to help you plan even better events in the future.

Beyond Cashless Payments: Gamify the Experience with meed

This is where things get really interesting. A digital system isn't just about transactions; it's about creating a more engaging experience. This is where a platform like meed shines, by combining payments with a loyalty-building game.

We saw this in action at the French Gourmay food and wine festival in Hong Kong. Instead of just a simple payment system, they used

meed to create a digital stamp card for the event.

• How it Worked: Visitors received a digital pass on their phones.
  

• The Game: Every time they purchased a participating vendor, they got a digital stamp for each HK$100 spent.
  

• The Reward: Using our STEP card, as they received more stamps, they earned more rewards, which they could redeem at the organiser's booth.

This drove hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.

Imagine this at your Christmas market. A visitor gets a stamp for buying a bratwurst, another for a piece of fudge, and a third for some handcrafted jewellery. Once they collect five stamps, they can earn a free ride on the carousel or a complimentary glass of prosecco.

This simple mechanic encourages visitors to explore more of the market, spend at more stalls, and turns the whole experience into a fun, interactive game.

You can even use meed to issue the initial entry tickets as digital ‘Event Passes’, which you can scan at the gate using the simple meed business app. This consolidates your entire ticketing and rewards process on a single, unified platform.

By going cashless, you’re not just solving the problems of cash; you’re creating a more seamless, secure, and memorable experience for everyone involved. You reduce queues, increase security, and give your visitors a fun reason to engage more deeply with every vendor at your market.