The Trader Players’ Time to Shine
How post-COVID redemption trends may change your product assortment needs
As people start to venture out and return to your center, you may start to notice a difference in what prizes are getting redeemed. Order data reported our customers were buying more heavily in the 250–1,250 ticket range in May and June.
The sweet spot for redemption has always been, what we call, the “Trader” range (250–1,250 ticket items). Your assortment should already skew to have a larger percentage of items in this ticket range than any other range. In a post-COVID world, you might see a larger redemption rate for items in this ticket range. There are a couple of possibilities for this:
- Certain games being turned off to encourage social distancing
- Guests cashing in all their tickets and not saving them for another visit due to tight family budgets
- Time restraints if you have implemented this as a way to control headcount in your center
- Your “regulars” visiting less frequently
Pay attention to your data over the next couple of months. If you start to see more normal trends, you’ll want to make sure you start buying Saver (1,250–3,750 tickets) items again as you normally would.
In the meantime, let’s break down what we mean by the “Trader” Player Type.
There are 3 main ticket ranges for your redemption product. Each ticket range has a coordinating type of player likely to redeem within that range.
Impulse: 5–250 tickets / These players are likely to cash in all their tickets in one visit. They are also typically younger aged.
Trader: 250–1,250 tickets / The Trader player type tends to spend more money in the game room after an initial spend. They do this to “trade up” for a desired item.
Saver: 1,250–3,750 / Saver players will save tickets throughout multiple visits to your center before cashing them in for a larger prize. They are also probably a little bit older in age.
There is a Super Saver player type as well, but this type of guest is probably rare to your redemption program. These players either save up over a very long time (more than a year), visit your center very frequently, or are more of a professional-type arcade player.
Understanding each player type will help you plan your prize assortment and how much to buy in each ticket range.
Picking the Right Trader Prizes
Now that you know you should be buying more heavily than what you’re used to in Trader Prizes over the next couple of months, it’s important to know how to knock it out of the park with these items! You want to give guests an incentive to come back to your center by giving them a great selection.
- Pick items at varying ticket values within the redemption range. Make sure you have some lower ticket items (between 300–400 tickets) and some higher ticket items (between 750–1250) tickets. NOTE: Ticket values based on the industry standard of a x2 markup. Values may vary from business to business.
- These themes have a good selection of prizes in the Trader category:
- Wheels + Wings
- Ooey Gooey
- Great Outdoors
- Create, Build, Learn
What have you observed at your center since reopening?
We’d love to know what trends you’re noticing at your center. With varying state and local mandates (and policies changing almost daily) we want to make sure we can provide you with the best, tailored recommendations. Please reach out to us with any questions or observations you may have. Our account management team (Ann and Holly) want to make sure you’re set up to perform as best you can this summer!
If you need ideas on how to safely ramp up your redemption program’s performance post-COVID here are some ideas.
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