The Challenge: Speed at the bar and the management/refund of reusable cups

During city-wide public events such as Carnaval Breda, King's Day, Spinola Live, Breda Jazz Festival, and Havenfeesten, Breda's hospitality venues and squares transform into large-scale city festivals. With enormous crowds, speed and reliability of the payment system are absolute top priorities: every second of delay in card payments directly impacts revenue.

Furthermore, reusable cups play an increasingly important role in making these events more sustainable, but the logistics surrounding the refund of deposits (statiegeld) present enormous operational challenges. Long queues at return points, managing physical change, and administrative burdens make traditional cup refunds complex and inefficient amidst the festive crowds. Especially with a large and dynamic audience, absolute simplicity is crucial.

The Solution with Beyond Ordering

Spinola, De Huiskamer, De Markt, and HolyMoly chose Beyond Ordering's stable open-loop platform to fully digitize both sales and refund processes:

Lightning-fast and reliable payments

Thanks to the powerful all-in-one mobile terminals, visitors at the bars could pay directly, securely, and contactless in a fraction of a second. This ensured a flawless, constant bar flow with no downtime during the busiest peak moments.

Innovative QR Refund for deposits

To alleviate the logistical burden of reusable cups, the smart QR Refund system was implemented. Instead of complicated cash handling at the bar, refunds are now fully digital and automated in the background. Additionally, the sale and exchange of cups at each bar could be monitored via the monitoring app.

Central real-time dashboard

Through the central platform, the organization continuously maintained an overview of both real-time revenue and exact cup return statistics, in addition to sales and performance figures per device, per location.

How does the QR Refund system work in practice?

1. The visitor brings their reusable cups to a strategic collection point.
2. The employee counts and confirms the number of cups on the device, after which a unique, fraud-proof QR refund voucher is immediately printed.
3. The visitor scans the QR code with their smartphone and enters their bank details (on-site or later at home) — without needing to download an app.
4. The deposit refund is then automatically and securely transferred to the bank account.

Where does this make a difference?

1. Cash flow: Since the payout occurs after the consumer redeems the QR Refund voucher, no money needs to be advanced.
2. Fraud protection: As an organization, you can monitor who claims refunds and take action if fraud occurs by employees or visitors, in which case the payout will be cancelled.
3. Offline buffering: Each refund device stores its credits locally, which buffers against potential network disruptions.

The result: No queues, 100% cashless efficiency

The transition to Beyond Ordering's technology brought peace of mind, structure, and sustainability on the busiest days of the year:

• No long queues: Visitors don't have to wait unnecessarily long at the bar or at the return points to get their deposit back, which significantly improves the overall festival experience.
• Cashless and secure: No risk of errors or administrative hassle with physical change amidst the festive crowds. The bars and collection points operate faster and more securely.‍
• Operational Relief & Sustainability: Encouraging correct cup usage now goes hand in hand with a minimal workload for bar staff. Administrative processing is fully automated.