CASHLESS & CONTACTLESS Cashless now firmly established in vending


advancements that make vending the most convenient and appealing option. There’s potential in leveraging smart vending solutions that not only offer a wide product range, but also gather valuable consumer data to refine and tailor offerings,” David concluded. According to VMC’s Laura Barwell operators will want to take their service offering to the next level, and she believes the clear winner is mobile payments.


“Mobile phone payment is clearly the trend that’s on the rise, so for operators the biggest opportunity lies in leveraging all the functionality that mobile phones have to offer towards the transaction. Adding new features to their contactless payment solution like a digital loyalty scheme with rewards can maximise on every sales opportunity and increase repeat purchasing. “Integrating a mobile app into the system is another great way to get users more engaged in between transactions, encourage extra purchases and increase overall spend per customer.” Laura continues: “The VMC Flex app is a ready-made solution


W


ith two-thirds of machines now incorporating cashless payment options, this trend is here to stay. But just how entrenched is it and how is the industry adapting?


Perhaps despite appearances, vending has always been driven by technological developments. The plain metal box people associate with vending has changed considerably over the years, from the addition of screens to provide product information, to cashless and even contactless technologies.


According to the 2022 AVA census, almost two thirds (65%) of pay-vend machines now have cashless systems fitted, up from just 47% two years prior. As well as a rise in cashless, we are also seeing an increase in phone payments too, which has risen by 32% since 2017, now at 40% of all transactions. Vending & Automated Retail Association chief executive David Llewellyn said: “This is a trend that


we are only going to see continue in coming years, with people increasingly reliant on their smartphones for payments, passes and other tickets. It will be interesting to see how this is reflected in our upcoming census, with results set to be released in May 2023.” The last AVA census also revealed that where credit or cashless systems are fitted, almost three quarters (72%) of sales were cashless. This evidences the greater demand for cashless options and in response, the industry has seen a significant growth in cashless- only machines. As consumers grow more comfortable with contactless, cashless payments, it also opens the door for more unattended retail markets, such as micro-market vending – a custom designed vending market or mart with a self-checkout kiosk. In fact, the 2022 AVA census showed a 500% expansion of micro-markets in the last five years. “As we look to the future, operators and the industry should focus on flexibility, personalisation, continuing to embrace technological


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that’s fully customisable to the client making it easy to implement, with features that increase sales, improve the customer experience, and give operators a deeper insight into their customers purchasing habits to improve stock management and sales. Integrations can also be done with telemetry software to ensure you’re fully aware of machine status and performance at all times, keeping your operation running smoothly.”


Cashless is transforming our sector and how we work


A vending software specialist has recently released the latest major upgrade to its vending management system. SB Software managing director Simon Black says amongst the many new features of Vendmanager are two aspects which gauge the increasing real world impact of cashless in the vending sector.


“Firstly, we are adding new integrations to additional payment systems at a pace that we have never seen. Seconldly, with the reduction in cash collected from machines due to the growth in cashless and mobile payments, we have added a new setting to improve cash handling within Vendmanager. You can now set thresholds at the system level, to trigger a cash bag requirement on the operator based on the cashbox value since it was last taken, or the number of days since it was last collected. This will reduce the number of cash bags collected, by ensuring you only pick up cash bags with a value worth counting.


“Both of these are “customer-led” advances – our clients want/ need to use cashless more, and they do not want to send staff to collect cash unless it’s worthwhile visiting.”


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