PAYMENT SYSTEMS


capabilities provides the customer with an alternative, and often quicker option for purchasing items. In a new era for vending machines, which have become much more than drink dispensers, smart fridges may accept a transaction at its initial stage before the final amount is known and predict the charge once the door has shut, while reverse vending enables the recycling of goods such as plastics and glass, for a fee, demonstrating how agile the vending industry can be.


Laura Barwell, Head of Sales at VMC: Contactless has now moved on from being just a trend to the norm in everyday life, and customers expect it to be available pretty much everywhere they make a payment. The way in which consumers are using it has also advanced, with many people now choosing to use their mobile phone (using Apple/Google Pay) as their primary source of payment. This move from always carrying a cash and card with us, to only needing our phone is a significant one, and something we believe will drive the next stage of development in contactless payments in vending. Contactless has already helped to make payments simpler and


cleaner and has reduced admin and manual workload for vending operators. The next natural step is to consider how the increase in mobile phone payments can be leveraged to their advantage, to help maximise sales and encourage repeat purchasing. We think one option is by adding loyalty and reward and having the flexibility to create promotions, all of which can be achieved with the addition of our Flex cashless solution. Offering customers an app that provides them with additional benefits and makes buying even simpler is another tried and tested method that has been widely accepted by consumers in high street hospitality chains. Contactless was the first big step change in vending, but we think there is still so much more to come.


Simon Black SB Software managing director The increase in payment systems, and especially contactless, will continue apace, as both an absolute number and as a proportion of the machines actively serving end-users. We can see the data and the trend is actually accelerating.


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The payment landscape has been transformed already. And now


that the public are so willing and able to deploy whatever alternative to cash that they prefer, it will only go further ever faster. This is good, not only because it gives consumers what they want, but because the switch away from cash improves the quantity and quality and immediacy of the data available. And good data, well deployed, makes things better for everyone, whatever their touch- points with vending are. Here at SB Software we will continue to integrate with everything we can, as meaningfully as possible per context, including every type of payment system, right across the fields of vending, office coffee and micromarkets. Two interesting scenarios at the front of our minds at the moment


are drawn from opposite ends of the spectrum, involving: equipment that does not accept cash at all - only card or contactless; and equipment on site that is not currently fitted with a payment system and is not going to be, but is staying in service. The first of these examples is the Nova Market Kiosk. (PIC FILE 4) for self-checkout in micromarkets. It is extremely good value and it does not take cash.


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