FinTech Business

Navigating a business through uncharted territory.
This project aims to create value that only Rakuten can provide.

The project took place at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi, the home stadium of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles professional baseball team, and Noevir Stadium Kobe, the home stadium of the Vissel Kobe J1 professional soccer team. The project started in October 2018, targeting the start of the 2019 season.This project was only possible because Rakuten offers an array of cashless payment methods.

Yossie said.

The project involved Rakuten Eagles and Vissel Kobe from the Sports Business Department, and Rakuten Payment Strategy Room, Rakuten Pay, Rakuten Edy, and Rakuten Card from the FinTech Business, with key people from each business assigned to the project. To achieve the project’s goal, it was essential to know how to incorporate each payment method, put it all together as one product, and present it as a whole.

The most important thing is to avoid causing inconvenience to customers at the stadium. To that end, cooperating with the Sports Business Department was necessary, so we decided to team up with them in this project.

To show that “Fully cashless=no cash accepted,” we used “X (no) cash” as an easy-to-understand phrase in a variety of media, including in the guidebook on going entirely cashless, in informational emails, on websites, and in an official X account. We collaborated with the Sports Business Division to discuss whether any expressions were difficult for customers to understand.

In addition, we have prepared Rakuten Edy cards and charging stations for those who come to the stadium with only cash on hand. We made sure to set up a system that allows customers to go completely cashless on the spot.

Anticipating and preparing for the unpredictable.
Working together for mutual success.

The most challenging part of the project was imagining and preparing for the operations of the first initiative. Although we were well informed, we could not know how much information we would have, so we gathered many Rakuten Pay and Rakuten Edy employees at the site to prepare for every possible situation.

For those who had no knowledge about going cashless and had not used cashless payment methods before, a help desk was available to answer questions about which cashless option was suitable for them and respond to common inquiries.

We explained to Rakuten users who are able to use Rakuten Pay that it is an app for cashless payments, showed them how to install the app, and set up the Wi-Fi for installing the app. Looking back on that day, Tom laughs, “I ran around with pocket Wi-Fi from all network providers to explain the app to people.”

For those who only had cash on them, we prepared original Rakuten Edy cards and charging stations. We set up about 70 machines at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi and about 60 at Noevir Stadium Kobe, with staff members standing by the machines to explain how to charge the cards at them. “I was so focused on showing people how to charge their card that I eventually realized that 4 hours had passed. I was standing there for so long that I couldn’t bend my knees,” Yossie said. emphasizing the success of the opening day.

Sachiko, the leader of Rakuten Payment Strategy Office and who was in charge of the entire project, looks back on this project in collaboration with the Sports Business Division.

Delivering a “strong all-around performance”
to lead the way to cashless culture in Japan.

As a result of various initiatives, 95% of all visitors to the opening game were aware of our fully cashless system (based on a random sampling survey conducted at the site on April 3 and 4). Not only did official attendance go up 8.7%, sales in the stadium also went up 17.1% for merchandise and 21.1% for food and beverage.

Project members received many comments from attendees, one of whom said, “spending time at the stadium was much more convenient now that it’s cashless and we don't have to exchange physical money.” Merchants were similarly delighted that they “don’t have to reconcile totals by hand at the end of the day.”

Although the project itself has come to an end, we gained significant insight from it and expanded Rakuten’s potential even further. Initiatives to create new value like we did in this project will continue to emerge from our efforts in the future, such as rediscovering what only Rakuten can do, demonstrating the social value of cashless projects, and developing marketing measures using cashless payment data.

Cashless payment systems are a business that will surely improve people’s lives. This project has proven it.

Yossie explains how interesting working at Rakuten and creating new value for the world is.

By working on this project to promote a fully cashless system, we ourselves were able to experience firsthand the meaning of going entirely cashless for the first time by witnessing the joy of users and merchants with whom we usually do not have face-to-face contact with. We expect ourselves to further develop Japan’s move toward cashless payment systems, which started with the team spirit forged by the challenge of first establishing Rakuten Payment Inc. with high hurdles and demanding time constraints.

*This article is based on the information at the time of the interview.