Traditional vending machines don’t have a lot to say. Money in, product out — it’s very transactional. Vending operators have always struggled to figure out how to get more sales out of their machines and so it usually fell to introducing new, popular products or hoping that more customers would be in the vicinity of the machine to make purchases.
There is another way to make money.
It’s called “passive income” and the Brain STEM Toolbox’s interactive display screens make it easy for your vending machine to earn more money— easily.
Passive income is defined as money you receive on a regular basis, that needs minimal effort for you to maintain it or grow it. Examples of passive income include rental income, royalties or money from sales of downloadable products you’ve worked to create and then make available for ongoing purchase. E-books, on-line workshops and tutorials are all considered types of passive income.
Money you get for advertising other people’s products and services through your own business is also a form of passive income. Drawing more customers to your machine and encouraging more of them to make a purchase is also a way to make more money from an existing vending location without .
Here is where smart vending really shines!
The Brain STEM Toolbox is a type of smart vending machine that incorporates state-of-the-art touch screen technology and interactive displays. We know from research that having video on a vending machine increases the sales of that machine by 68% over vending machines without video. We’ve looked at how quickly you can increase your vending revenue by including video display in this blog post previously. This article is about how a display screen can increase your revenue for that machine in addition to those calculations.
Here’s how advertising on a smart vending machine can work: If your machine dispenses health snacks in a tourism-focused location the display and touch screen can help the customer choose the best snack based on their personal preferences and even health needs. It can even already know that a customer is, for example, celiac or diabetic and only show them the products that they can have. This is where the advertising for other businesses can kick in. After they make a purchase, the display can show them local restaurants that offer gluten free or diabetic menu items. The customer can peruse the menu and then book a table for dinner that night right on the Brain STEM Toolbox.
The Brain STEM Toolbox is a smart vending machine that’s connected to the Internet which is why it can morph into whatever we need it to be depending on who is using it.
The Brain STEM Toolbox is basically your iPhone if it were a big machine that could also dispense the product for you on the spot and this is why it can dispense that gluten free snack one minute and book a dinner reservation the next.
A restaurant that has purchased advertising on the Brain STEM Toolbox will get extra value from that advertisement because the customer can take action easily right at the moment they view the ad. We know if a customer experiences any delay between seeing a marketing message and being able to take action, the chance of them changing their minds and not making the purchase increases. The Brain STEM Toolbox makes it easy for the ads to work effectively for the advertiser. This makes it easy for you sell advertising on your smart vending machine.
A large vending machine operator based in China made revenue of 1.5 billion RMB. According to this post on the blog by procoolmfg.com, the gross profit of this company was 48% higher than most convenience stores. The blog post also reports that 280 million RMB of the revenue was from advertisement display and that this form of revenue continues to rise. The blog post also reports that the vending company sees future profits from their machines coming from : 20% retail vending sales, 30% from advertising on their vending machine display screens, and 50% from e-commerce.
The video display will also draw more people to your machine and then make the shopping experience more comfortable so they will purchase more. Video display on vending machines have an even bigger benefit — they increase your vending sales to women. JR East Water Business in Japan uncovered a staggering fact:
Men made more purchases from vending machines than women by a margin of 7 to 3.
Is it part of your business plan to not sell much to women? Assuming it isn’t, the Brain STEM Toolbox’s interactive display will help your vending machines appeal to women.
By making the experience more intuitive and interactive, the vending operator was able to tap into half of the population that wasn’t previously inclined to shop at a vending machine. If you currently have machines that aren’t performing well, it could be because women don’t find the experience appealing. Your machine upgrade to make it a smart vending machine could address this issue quickly.
Any savvy operator knows that the fastest path to growing quickly with minimal effort is to look at where in your operation there is unused capacity or underperforming channels and to put that dormant resource to work for you. You see this in action when airlines have seat sales to fill empty seats or when a local fitness club rents space to a massage therapist so their rent creates income for the club between classes.
When you include an interactive display screen on your Brain STEM Toolbox, you’re making that machine generate revenue in between the product sales AND attracting more customers who will then spend more. That’s just smart vending.
If you want to learn more – let’s talk.
Until next time — Brad
