Apple Pay Proves Unexpected Winner With Vending Machines
June 22, 2016
by Steven Anderson
Granted, some vending machines offer a very smooth experience. Insert cash—it only takes one try sometimes, no frantically working the bill against the edge of the machine in order to straighten the bill—press buttons, get treat, get change where applicable.
All very straightforward, all very simple. Sometimes it doesn’t go that right, however, and it’s times like those that come to mind when we find Apple Pay is proving to be quite a winner as part of the vending machine market.
A study from USA Technologies revealed that Apple Pay actually had quite a bit of value to offer vending machines, at least those located in New York City and Lafayette, Louisiana, where the study took place.
Essentially, when a vending machine has a powerful digital checkout experience, the chances of users coming back for more increases.
Apple Pay and iPhone combinations proved to be big draws for users, and machines with the combination lead to a 26 percent increase in transactions on that machine.
What’s more, revenue was up 22 percent, and the average spend was up 12 percent.
USA Technologies’ senior vice president of marketing Maeve McKenna Duska summarized, saying “We believe speed and convenience is often a top priority for consumers, especially when it comes to small dollar purchases.
We believe the unattended markets we serve will continue to drive Apple Pay use – and that consumer awareness campaigns at the point-of-sale are key to accelerating adoption even further.”
When an experience is easier to carry out and more convenient to do, it stands to reason those who wouldn’t have ordinarily engaged in such experiences suddenly will.
It removes a key objection, and in sales terms, when you remove objections, you improve the likelihood of reaching “yes.” With Apple Pay as a means to pay for vending machine purchases, it suddenly becomes a lot easier to make that purchase. If price isn’t an objection, then the process to “yes” is realized.
For those looking for more convenience—and it’s easy for a vending machine to be inconvenient—the end result of adding Apple Pay would seem to be just the ticket.
The numbers seem to back this notion up, so we may well see a lot more Apple Pay-capable vending machines coming soon.
