Smart Venue: The Digital Transformation for Venues

The Revolutionary Role of Smart Technologies in the Event Experience

Smart technologies play an increasingly important role in modern venues. They are not just practical helpers but provide real added value and enhance the visitor experience on multiple levels.

Smart Technologies for a Better Event Experience
Thanks to digital solutions, the visitor experience becomes more efficient and comfortable. Here are some key areas where modern technologies play a crucial role:

Ticketing & Access Control – Digital tickets and automated entry controls ensure quick and secure access to the event. We have the necessary expertise and are a certified partner of the company SKIDATA.

Security Systems – AI-based monitoring and smart sensors contribute to visitor safety.

Contactless Payment – Mobile payment and digital wallets reduce waiting times and increase convenience.

Optimized Catering – Intelligent ordering and delivery processes significantly improve the catering experience.

Information Provision – Real-time updates, interactive ground plans, and augmented reality for an even more immersive experience.

Traffic Management – Smart mobility solutions optimize the arrival and departure of visitors.

No More Queues Thanks to Mobile Ordering – The Digital Transformation of the Event Break
Every visitor knows the problem: the break starts, and the way to the snack stand becomes a race against time. Mobile ordering provides relief!

Order & Pay via QR Code – Thanks to smart PWA technology, visitors can order and pay for their snacks and drinks directly from their seats without having to install a native app on their phone.

Fast Pickup or Delivery – The order is either provided for pickup or delivered directly to the seat. This leaves more time to enjoy the event and the atmosphere.

Personalized Recommendations – Smart algorithms suggest suitable offers to visitors based on their preferences.

This digital transformation ensures that the valuable break is not lost in queues but is used for what really matters – the real event experience!

The Key to Success – Visitor-Centricity

In an increasingly digitalized world, focusing on the needs and desires of visitors is essential, especially at modern venues. These places are not just settings for cultural, business, and leisure events but also centers for unique experiences.

Mobile-First Strategy: The Foundation of Visitor Interaction
A central component of visitor-centricity is the mobile-first strategy. The visitor journey often begins before entering the venue and includes:

Ticket Purchase – Easy and quick access to events
Travel Planning – The seamless integration of all Google services ensures smooth navigation to the venue.
Event Information – All relevant details at a glance

The goal is to provide a seamless and intuitive mobile experience that facilitates and enriches the visit.

The Visitor Journey: Every Touchpoint Counts
The visitor journey encompasses numerous points of interaction, including:

Account Creation – Personalized experiences begin here
Ticketing & Access – Convenient digital admission solutions
Catering & Services – Mobile ordering and VIP areas
The Event Itself – Live interactions, exclusive content & visitor activations

Each of these points offers an opportunity to personalize and enhance the experience.

Consistent Brand Experience: Online & On-Site
Visitors expect seamless interaction between digital and physical channels. This includes:

Consistent brand messages across all platforms
Gamification & interaction to increase visitor engagement
Exclusive content & offers for personalized experiences

A consistent and engaging brand experience strengthens visitor retention and loyalty in the long term.

The Future of Visitor-Centricity: Creating an Unforgettable Experience
Visitor-centricity means more than digital optimization – it’s about the perfect fusion of digital and physical experiences:

Exclusive visitor zones with interactive experiences
Personalized rewards & loyalty programs
Augmented reality & digital features for an immersive experience

Visitor-Centricity as a Success Factor
In the digital age, visitor-centricity is not only a competitive advantage but a necessity.

By creating unique, personalized, and engaging experiences, venues can build a deeper connection and loyalty among their visitors – securing their long-term success.

Make the visitor experience unforgettable!

A Seamless Experience: From Online Ticket Purchase to Online Shop

Event visitors benefit in many ways from smart technologies. Especially in the areas of:

Ticketing – Quick and convenient online booking of tickets
Access Control – Efficient access control through digital solutions, optionally with existing handheld scanners, POS installations, or directly via the visitors’ smartphones
Security – Enhanced security measures through smart sensors and digital identification
Payment Options – Contactless and digital payment options over POS or mobile payment systems

But the experience doesn't end at the entrance of the venue. Visitor information, catering offers, and traffic management also play a crucial role in ensuring a smooth arrival and departure.

The Online Shop: More than Just Event Merchandise

The online shop is much more than just a platform for merchandise. With smart features like:

Inventory Management – Optimized stock control for quick availability
Dynamic Pricing Management – Flexible pricing based on demand
Product Videos – Interactive content for a better shopping experience
Cross-Selling – Individual product recommendations for visitors

These digital solutions provide a comfortable and modern shopping experience – on-site at the venue, via mobile devices, and online.

The Path to Smart Venue – Faster and Safer Access through Innovative Technologies

The rapid development and advanced integration of modern technologies play a key role in transforming the event experience. The use of NFC (Near Field Communication), RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) and QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) has the potential to fundamentally change access to venues.

NFC – Contactless Entry via Smartphone
With NFC, smartphones and other mobile devices can be used as tickets by simply holding them near a reader. This technology provides a seamless and touchless experience, not only increasing convenience but also enhancing security by minimizing physical contact.

RFID – Fast and Efficient Through Automatic Identification
RFID allows for even faster and more efficient identification and verification of visitors. RFID tags, which can be integrated into tickets or wristbands, send a signal to RFID readers, speeding up access and significantly reducing wait times at entrances.

QR Codes – Flexible, Digital, and Cost-Efficient
QR codes offer another dimension of access control. They are easy to generate, distribute, and scan, making them a cost-effective solution for organizers. With QR codes, tickets can be distributed and verified directly through smartphone apps, eliminating the need for physical tickets and optimizing the check-in process.

More than Just Access: Interactive Visitor Experiences
These technologies also offer new opportunities for visitor interaction. Organizers can:

Send personalized offers and event info directly to smartphones
Provide digital directions within the venue
Create new marketing opportunities through digital touchpoints

Smart Venue – The Future of Event Attendance
Thanks to NFC, RFID, and QR codes, attending events becomes faster, safer, and more interactive. These technologies make the experience more user-friendly and attractive for visitors.

As a certified partner of SKIDATA, a leading international company for access solutions, we offer you complete solutions for modern venues. In combination with our software for the Smart Venue, you will delight your visitors at every event!

The Right Choice of CRM System – The Key to Success

Efficient Master Data Management with Smartstore MDM
Smartstore enables businesses and organizers to optimize their operational processes with advanced master data management (MDM) and a powerful customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Centralized Management: The Smartstore MDM system ensures unified management of all digital master data within a single application. This significantly increases efficiency as all data is centrally stored and seamlessly synchronized with ERP or inventory systems.

Optimized Customer Management with Smartstore CRM
Everything at a Glance: The Smartstore CRM module offers a comprehensive platform for capturing, centralizing, and managing all relevant customer data. Using specific plugins, missing information can be added in any direction.

Powerful Features:
Unification of customer profiles
Modeling of customer data
Real-time personalization
Automation of marketing processes

With these features, companies can achieve personalized customer engagement, targeted data segmentation, and efficient marketing automation — all from a single central platform.

The Perfect Combination: MDM & CRM
In combination, the MDM and CRM system from Smartstore provides a cohesive and efficient solution to optimally manage and utilize both business and customer data.

Added Value for Businesses and Organizers:
Optimized data management leads to better business processes
Enhanced customer engagement through targeted communication
More efficient workflows through automation

Smartstore provides the perfect digital foundation to successfully position itself in the market in the long term.

Mobile Ordering of Food, Snacks, and Drinks – WITHOUT Separate App

Smartstore Revolutionizes Catering at Venues

Smartstore provides an innovative solution for catering that takes visitor convenience to a new level. Event visitors can easily order food and drinks without long wait times and without having to install a special app.

No Lines, No Waiting – Simply Order via QR Code
Thanks to our technology, visitors no longer need to stand in line for food and drinks. Instead, a simple scan of a QR code, visibly installed in the event area, suffices.

How it Works:

• Scan the QR code – directly with the smartphone.

• Place order – select food & drinks.

• Pay conveniently – online or via the existing POS system.

Flexible Payment System for All Visitors

• Registered users can process their orders directly as a normal online order, billing is automatic.

• Guests without an account can quickly sign in via social media logins or pay their order online immediately.

• Optional: Payments can also be processed via mobile POS systems.

Benefits for Visitors & Organizers

• No Waiting: Visitors don’t lose valuable time during the event.

• Higher Revenues: Through optimized ordering processes and evenly distributed demand.

• Efficient Operations: Reduction of queues during breaks.

• After the order and payment, the goods will be displayed via push notification for pickup.

• More Comfort: A contemporary and pleasant catering experience.

With this innovation, Smartstore sets new standards in catering and makes event attendance even more enjoyable!

Digital Solutions for Age Verification in Sales Environments

To ensure that underage visitors cannot access products intended exclusively for adults, Smartstore offers various options for secure age verification. These technologies enable the protected sale of products such as alcohol or tobacco to those aged 18 and over – whether at vending machines or self-checkout systems.

Integration into Vending Machines & Self-Checkout Systems
Age verification systems can be directly integrated into vending machines or self-checkout systems.
This ensures that products with age restrictions are only dispensed to eligible individuals.

AI-Powered Age Verification with ID Documents
An AI-based age recognition checks an ID document by holding it in front of a camera.
The system decides in real-time whether the sale is approved.
Privacy-Friendly: No internet connection required, no storage of personal data.

Pre-Stored Identities for Returning Customers
In recurring sales environments, visitors who consent can pre-store their photo or an identity attribute.
This allows for quick age approval without needing a manual check every time.

Access Control for Restricted Areas
Age verification can also be integrated into access control systems.
This ensures that only authorized individuals have access to certain areas, such as in 24/7 stores or secured sales zones.
For solutions in the area of door control and access management, we work with our partner company SALTO Systems.

Horizontal Scaling for Peak Loads at Large Events

Particularly at larger events, enormous peak loads can occur – whether in ticket sales, at the entrance, or for orders in the catering area. To reliably manage these demands, we rely on a dynamic cloud environment that can provide additional capacity immediately and without detours.

Why Horizontal Scaling is More Sensible
With modern cloud technologies, it is often easier, more cost-effective, and more efficient to scale resources horizontally rather than centrally scale up.

• With vertical scaling (more performance on a single server), you quickly reach technical and economic limits. Also, downtime often occurs due to necessary reboots.

• With horizontal scaling, additional infrastructure instances are provided in parallel to flexibly absorb increasing demand. Once the peak load is over, unnecessary resources can be automatically removed – without unnecessary costs.

Strategic Scaling for Peak Loads
A well-thought-out system design allows you to confidently handle sudden data traffic spikes at events. Typical scenarios include:

• Large cultural or music events

• Trade shows and conferences

• Sales campaigns or marketing promotions

By preparing the infrastructure in advance and dynamically scaling, performance bottlenecks are avoided – and visitors enjoy a seamless digital experience.

Cloud Operation as Needed
Our solution supports operation in Microsoft Azure, but can also run with any other cloud provider that the organizer prefers.

The advantages:

• Cost-Efficiency – no high investments in additional hardware required.

• Flexibility – resources are automatically added or removed as needed.

• Pay-as-you-go – payment is only made for actually used capacities, no idle costs.

This approach makes it possible to remain powerful and stable even with unexpectedly high visitor numbers or extreme demand peaks.

Major Events and Large Gatherings under Threat of Cyberattacks

Digital security at major events, especially at general events, is becoming increasingly important.

Risks and Threats
The increasing connectivity of venues and the rising number of devices and networks significantly increases the risk of cyberattacks. Specially affected are:

• IT Infrastructures: Venues often exhibit security gaps that endanger critical operational functions and visitor systems.

• Organization and Partner Data: The loss of sensitive business or personal data can have serious consequences.

• Visitor Data: Personal identification data can be compromised through insecure event apps, open WiFi hotspots, or manipulated QR codes.

Protection Measures for Your Event
To minimize these risks, we rely on proven security standards and trusted cloud solutions in partnership with Microsoft and Sogeti. Our security policies help you effectively protect general events and large gatherings from cyberattacks.

Secure Your Event – Before It's Too Late!

One-Stop-Shop for the Smart Venue
Smartstore unifies all relevant functionalities in a single system – reducing maintenance effort, lowering costs, and increasing scalability at the same time. With Smartstore 6, the fastest cross-platform Open Source Composable Commerce Platform in the ASP.NET world, organizers are optimally prepared for the cloud.

Maximum Performance with the Smartstore Commerce Cloud
Thanks to the close collaboration with Microsoft, organizers can accelerate their growth and benefit from tailor-made solutions. The Smartstore Commerce Cloud offers a powerful basis for the digital transformation of venues.

Strong Partnerships for the Best Service

Smartstore relies on numerous renowned partners to always ensure the best services:

Technology Partners: AWS, Microsoft, Google
E-Commerce & Security: Trusted Shops, Diebold Nixdorf, Sunmi POS, Pyramid Computer, eBay
Payment Providers: Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, Amazon Pay, Klarna, Bluecode, UNZER, Santander, Ratenkauf by easyCredit, PAYONE, and many more.

Digital Transformation for Modern Venues
Digital transformation is not a trend but a necessity to meet the growing expectations of visitors and create a contemporary shopping experience. Smartstore is a certified SKIDATA integration partner – the perfect connection for future-proof solutions at venues.

Do you have questions about this topic? Or would you like to send us your feedback? Then you can reach us through the contact form, by email at info@smartstore.com or by phone from Monday to Friday between 10 am and 4 pm at the number +4923153350.