When one thinks of a cashless society, one immediately reflects on the convenience of digital money. With it, you can pay for your orders, settle payments, and process cash holdings via your phone.
While this payment method has been around for a while, its benefits became more apparent when COVID-19 impacted people’s lives, particularly with the social distancing protocol. And in case you haven’t noticed, it has also influenced how we spend our money.
Among the industries that have benefitted from digital cash and other cashless payment methods are vending machines. A cashless future is now seen, thanks to vending machine card payment being widely accepted in exchange for basic commodities.
What Are the Effects of a Cashless Future?
As we move toward a cashless vending future, what will happen to the vending industry’s future retail? What does it expect from retail owners, particularly those with vending machines?
Consider the benefits and drawbacks of vending machine card payment methods to address these questions.
Advantages of Vending Machine Card Payments
Aside from convenience, cashless payment has several advantages for both owners and customers. Here are a few examples:
Benefit #1: Keep Up with the New Trends in Technology
Your vending machine payment system must be efficient and quick to provide the best service possible. That said, it is best to watch current technological advancements that may impact a customer’s interaction with your company.
With proper research and experience, you will stay ahead of the competition if you adapt to new technological trends in the retail industry.
Benefit #2: Lower Crime Rates
Criminal activity has decreased as most people opt for cashless payment during the lockdown. In fact, unlike cash transactions, digital payments leave a record of when, where, and what was purchased. This can help law enforcement officers in tracking down criminal records or movements.
Due to this, many vending machine owners are innovating their payment methods, incorporating new vending machine card payment options, to reduce crime rates.
Benefit #3: Improve the Payment Process
Compared to cash payment methods, recognition features on this new technology allows you to save seconds on the overall payment process. Instead of waiting for loose change for several minutes, you can swipe your card or tap your phone for a faster transaction.
In other words, customers will no longer have to count their money, wait for change, or ensure that cash is inserted correctly into the machine. As a result, faster transactions increase the number of clients, resulting in a win-win situation for both business owners and consumers.
Benefit #4: Hygienic Transaction
People are becoming more conscious of hygiene due to the COVID-19 outbreak, notably because health leaders emphasise the importance of good hygiene. Proper hygiene is a simple yet powerful tool for preventing people from becoming infected.
With the emphasis on hygiene, vending machine card payment methods have become more popular.
As we all know, bills and coins can spread the virus because people touch them. Through cashless payment methods, we remain hygienic and prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Benefit #5: Increase Sales
According to a study conducted by USA Technologies and Michigan State University, adding cashless technology to 250,000 vending machines resulted in a 35% increase in revenue over 18 months.
In addition, it also increased credit card transaction-related sales within 18 months of implementation. Here’s a breakdown of the data:
- An increase in credit card transactions by 74%
- Increase in cash transactions by 13%
- Spending per transaction has increased by 7%.
- Overall transaction volume increased by 26%.
With these figures, it is clear that vending machine card payments have improved sales.
Benefit #6: Improve Operational Efficiency
Real-time data collection is one of the most valuable benefits of a cashless future. With transactions occurring through digital marketing, vending machine owners can quickly analyse and understand the customer’s purchasing pattern through instant data collection.
Aside from that, you can track inventory and changes in machine transactions by machine and location. Thus, it allows you to react immediately with an empty tray, providing vending machine owners with efficient inventory management.
Simply put, vending machine card payments allow retailers to focus on their core competencies by ensuring timely distribution and product quality.
Benefit #7: Save Extra Labour and Costs
Without cash to count, your company can save money by not hiring someone to calculate the exact amount of daily profit manually.
In other words, digital transactions save time spent handling, counting, and processing cash, resulting in lower overhead.
Disadvantages
As we move toward a cashless economy, some things may disrupt the retail industry if a business is not handled correctly. Here are a few examples:
Drawback #1: Economic Inequality
The more we rely on cashless vending machines, the more critical smartphones will become. While many people already own phones, we cannot deny that some cannot afford these technological advancements.
With the shift to digital payments, a cheap drink from the vending machine is out of reach for poor people.
Drawback #2: Cyber Crime
Some of the customers’ credit card information is saved on the retailer’s database, where all transactions are done digitally. While most of us know best practices for minimising security threats, such as never opening attachments from unknown sources, some still lack digital literacy.
And when a business owner fails to implement security encryption, hackers can quickly obtain all information from a customer’s credit card information, making the financial system more vulnerable to cyber threats globally.
Unsure where to begin? TCN Vending Australia is the Answer!
TCN Vending Australia has worked hard to build a reputation as one of the country’s most dependable vending machine suppliers. Depending on your preferences, we have over 32 different vending machine models available.
So, if you want a vending machine that accepts card payments or a device that accepts coins and bills, we offer them. Please get in touch with our team for more information. Call 1800 959 910 to speak to our helpful staff. We are at 9/16 Bernera Road, Prestons, New South Wales, 2170.
