Over 218,000 NBA/NHL fans shop checkout-free with Zippin this season

Wow, what an exciting Stanley Cup Finals series. Congratulations to the Florida Panthers who won their first Stanley Cup, marking a thrilling end to the 2023-2024 NHL season. To celebrate the official end of the NHL postseason, we wanted to look back at this year’s NBA and NHL seasons and how Zippin checkout-free stores helped fans catch more of the action. 

Hockey and basketball fans will tell you that during a game, every second counts. The pace of the games is relentless and fans who get stuck waiting in long concessions lines risk missing once-in-a-lifetime magic moments. On average, NBA teams took a shot every two minutes this season. Fans waiting in typical ten-minute lines could easily miss five critical plays. 

That’s where Zippin checkout-free technology makes such a difference. By eliminating the traditional checkout, Zippin gives fans more of what they paid for - more time in their seats enjoying the game. This blog, a follow-up to our 2023-2024 NBA recap blog, looks at the record-breaking sales achieved by Zippin-powered stores during the regular season. This infographic shows the highlights:

Zippin-powered stores are deployed at nine NBA/NHL venues. To put in perspective how many fans shopped checkout-free with Zippin this season, consider these venues have a total seating capacity of 208,000 fans. That means 10,600+ more fans shopped checkout-free during the regular season than can fit seated in these venues, combined. This figure only reflects sales at regular NBA and NHL home games and excludes all concerts or events held at the venues. By including these events during this timeframe, the number of checkout-free shoppers visiting Zippin-powered stores at NBA/NHL venues more than doubles to over 465,000. 

The total number of unique shoppers at Zippin-powered stores isn’t reflected in this number when you take into account the popularity of checkout-free stores. Because shopping checkout-free with Zippin is so fast and convenient, repeat shopper rates can easily average 10% - 20% or more. Tropicana Field’s Short Stop, a fan favorite, sees repeat shopper rates over 25% per game. While long lines discourage fans from making a purchase, having no lines encourages repeat purchases and significantly higher food and beverage sales. 

It’s clear from this data that checkout-free technology delivers tremendous value for sports teams and their fans. Yet, today the majority of checkout-free stores at NBA and NHL venues are drink markets. This misses the bigger opportunity to expand checkout-free tech venue-wide across all shopping experiences. Zippin brings speed and convenience to all types of stores, including traditional hot food stands, retrofitted stores, container stores, outdoor tents, and more. We believe the 2024-2025 NBA/NHL season will reflect the additional value of Zippin’s newest innovations such as Zippin Walk-Up and Zippin Walk-Up Outdoors. 

If you’re looking to expand your checkout-free footprint or adopt checkout-free technology for the first time, talk to us. We are the leader in checkout-free for sports and entertainment, with the most advanced AI-powered technology and most flexible platform at a low total cost of ownership. Our depth of experience and range of deployment options give sports teams a variety of ways to go checkout-free, grow sales, and deliver exceptional gameday experiences for fans. 

With Zippin, the future of fan engagement is not just fast-paced but also immensely enjoyable. Let's gear up for an even more exciting and efficient next season, ensuring that fans spend less time in line and more time enjoying the game they love. Reach out to us to begin planning for next season.