Vending machines juin 13, 2006
Posted by Postmaster in eVending.add a comment
The vending machine is believed to have been first invented in Alexandria during the 1st century, but it is in the past 20 years that this industry has grown big. In 2000 it was a $30 billion business in the USA and $56 billion in Japan. Sodas and snacks account for most of the sales (more than 60% in the USA), but there are now machines offering anything from digital cameras, ringtones, batteries, organic food, kerosene (in Japan, for home heating), minute meals, etc. In Japan one giant machine offers 200 different products, stored at 3 different temperatures. According to this article, many advances in technology (cashless payment, connected machines, sensors, etc.) are not yet being widely implemented, as many actors in the vending business find technologies or fees related to these technologies (e.g. credit cards) too expensive and believe that there is no return on investment. Technology does however make a difference on the tracking and refurnishing side, for example by stocking the right amounts of products in a delivery’s van and by planning the driver’s route. Another survey shows that that consumers spend 50% more on average at vending machines when they can make purchases using their credit or debit cards, so the payoff should become interesting for operators.
Trends and examples:
- Pre-cooked frozen meals to be cooked and vended automatically in one minute or less: Hankers.
- Employees can order complete meals (1 to 15 days in advance) and get them from vending machines with their badges: O-Tomat, Codia.
- Healthy/organic snacks: HealthStation.
- Music, ringtones, videos or prepaid credit vending for mobile: Uphonia.
- Coca-Cola Japan installed vending machines that can be remotely controlled to provide drinks free of charge in case of a disaster.
- In Japan vending machines that sell alcohol are gradually being replaced by models capable of checking the age of a customer by scanning a form of ID, such as a driver’s license.
- Fuji has developed a makeup vending machine that can not only talk to a customer but also features a camera that displays an image of the customer’s face on a screen with a mocked-up image of what they would look like wearing a certain shade of lipstick.
The last three examples are taken from "Japanese Innovation Comes in Interesting Ways — How about Vending Machines"
