One of the tourism capitals of the world is seeking to energize its street performers with contactless payments.
Busk in London, an initiative of the city’s mayor’s office, has teamed up with iZettle, a Point of Sale solutions provider, to help the city’s “buskers” make a living in an increasingly cashless society. It’s outfitting the performers with card readers that lets passersby make a pre-set donation just by tapping their payment devices, whether they’re EMV cards or mobile wallets like Apple Pay.
It’s still early days for the initiative, but as The Guardian reports, one full-time busker, Charlotte Campbell, attests to the impact the system has had on her livelihood. Having trialed a contactless reader set to accept £2 donations over a two-week period, Campbell says it’s had a “significant impact” on her business.
It’s a fitting approach for a city that has welcomed the new cashless economy with open arms, with London’s transit system having been an early adopter of mobile payment platforms like Apple Pay and Android Pay (now rebranded as ‘Google Pay’). And with buskers being not only citizens but important components of the city’s tourism sector, getting these same kinds of payment tools into their hands has evidently become a priority as well.
Sources: The Guardian, 9to5Mac
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