no secret anymore that hungry and thirsty customers do not want to be bothered with fumbling for loose change and their buying habits are truly showing this. More than 30 percent of customers chose to pay using cashless for its speed and convenience, according to a Knowledge Base study from USA Technologies.
Here are several of the latest cashless payment innovations from technology suppliers that will let operators take advantage of the move towards a more cashless experience.
Cantaloupe Systems launches remote price changing
Cantaloupe Systems continuously seeks to provide its customers with a competitive cashless offering as well as one that is focused on providing the operator tools to manage those cashless devices effectively.
“The goal is to ensure that consumers have a great experience every time they interact with an operators machine,” said Elyssa Allahyar-Steiner, director of marketing at Cantaloupe Systems. “So if we can provide a product that allows operators to manage their machine up-time, provide alerts for important notifications to the operator, and ultimately focus on giving the consumer a great experience all the time, then we have done our job in providing a great cashless solution.”
Currently, Cantaloupe Systems is rolling out remote price changing, giving operators the ability to remotely change price of products in the machines from a remote location such as an off-site office to save operators time and, perhaps most importantly, money.
“This will greatly help in making sure prices are set accurately and allows easier merchandising changes without the expense of sending a tech out to change price,” explained Anant Agrawal, president and co-founder of Cantaloupe Systems.
Gimme Vending partners with USA Technologies
Earlier this year, Gimme Vending announced an alliance agreement with USA Technologies to equip self-serve machines with cashless and online services capabilities that are integrated with wireless, plug-and-play technology that helps download DEX from the machines. The app then syncs vend visits in real-time with the operator’s existing vending management system to populate large picture displays through a user-friendly interface.
“This allows vending operators to start using our solution without the need for additional hardware, like Gimme Keys, on machines equipped with ePort devices,” says Evan Jarecki, co-founder and chief technology officer of Gimme Vending. “Not only do operators benefitting from USA Technologies get all of the value from the Gimme solution, but don’t need to purchase additional hardware for these machines to gain that value.
Jarecki adds that offering cashless options benefits vending operators in ways other than simply offering consumers more convenient ways to purchase.
“As cashless trends continue rising as a standard in commerce, vending operators will benefit from these upward trends.” Jarecki said. “The challenges may be cannibalization of cash sales, but I see this being countered by an increase in prices and purchase volume. No one is thinking about that extra quarter when swiping a card.”
Customer satisfaction is essential at Nayax
Nayax’s ultimate goal is satisfaction for consumers and operators. As such, Nayax offers an instant refund feature that increases consumer satisfaction, as well as providing the framework for operators to initiate a loyalty program for consumer engagement and satisfaction.
“We have enhanced our features for closed environments and micro markets, making it an easy, one-step process for operators to upload an entire business’ prepaid cards to the server,” explained Lisa Appelson, marketing and communications manager at Nayax. “Once these prepaid cards are in use, users can use their card regularly. Users can easily reload their prepaid cards, either directly at the vending machine with cash or credit card, or uploading their card to Nayax’s Monyx Wallet app or at a white-labeled website.”
Users of prepaid cards can receive discounts based on the card type and with Nayax’s two-tier pricing, operators and facility managers can set separate pricing for employees and visitors.
“Nayax’s focus on consumer engagement gives operators the ability to market their business even after the consumer has left the vicinity of the vending machine,” said Appelson.
Parlevel Systems rolls out campus payment technologies
In Parlevel Systems’ micro markets, cashless payments make up around 80 percent of sales. In order to continue capitalizing on this trend, Parlevel Systems recently implemented campus payment technology for Parlevel micro markets in order to increase sales at colleges.
“We find that customers want to pay in a method they are comfortable with,” said Christopher Blomquist, marketing content manager at Parlevel Systems. “The more methods you provide an end-customer to pay with, the bigger market you can appeal to." Blomquist adds that increased payment methods will also help both customer satisfaction and sales. “Implementing campus payment technology is an extension of this philosophy,” he said.
Blomquist adds that increased payment methods will also help both customer satisfaction and sales. “Implementing campus payment technology is an extension of this philosophy,” he said.
Additionally, Parlevel Systems has made continuous improvements to stored wallet checkout for micro markets. For example, wallet reloading, monitoring, and checkout are much faster, and support for employee badges have been implemented.
PayRange puts security first
As cashless payment technology continues to become more prevalent, security issues are also cropping up at an increased rate. Over the past year, there has been a new insurgence of ransomware, malware, and new security breaches that have impacted vending and micro market consumers worldwide. Because of this, PayRange has made security one of its top priorities as it continues to develop new cashless payment solutions.
“At PayRange, we developed our solution with security first,” said Amanda Mailey, director of marketing at PayRange. “The card number is never processed, stored, or transmitted through our servers.”
Mailey claims that PayRange is one of the most secure cashless payment solutions for vending and micro markets. “We never have the card number in the first place for it to be at risk of compromise,” she explained. In fact, with the mobile prepaid solution, there is a firewall between the card and machine providing additional confidence. “The consumers’ card number is never exposed to the machine or operator, which eliminates the risk of a compromise from the machine via a card skimmer or malware.”
Security issues do not compromise innovation at PayRange, however. The company is continuously working to improve the customer experiences that offer great value to both consumers and operators.
“Our innovation pipeline has no shortage of ideas and we are proud to be at the leading edge of innovation in the vending industry,” Mailey said. “We create new experiences, features, and products that bring new growth levers to this industry.”
Yoke Payments taps customer loyalty
With cashless payment technology becoming increasingly prevalent, Yoke Payments is aiming to establish itself in the pack by appealing to consumer loyalty. With its recent roll out of customer accounts and loyalty program, an app user can pre-load their account with the card on file and receive points for every load and dollar they spend at the market. Additionally, employers can now also give back to their employees by pre-loading each users account. Customers can then transfer the points into Yoke Cash and spend those funds at their market. Customers also have access to their account on the terminal with three ways to log in and once logged in, they can purchase products using the Yoke Cash or card that is on file.
“For us, we know cashless is the future and we have been pushing it since we started,” said Benjamin Thomas, vice president of dreams at Yoke Payments.
In addition to capitalizing on loyalty, Yoke Payments also has worked on several integrations over the past year. Recently, the company finished its integration with Cantaloupe Seed Pro, allowing operators to use Cantaloupe Systems for both micro markets and vending while just using Yoke Payments on the front end.
Another integration currently being finalized (at press time) is with Triteq Locks, allowing users to keep their cooler door locked at all times. Once a customer makes a purchase at the kiosk the door will unlock, allowing the operator to see who accesses the cooler and when. Yoke Payments also added an “Unlock Cooler” button to the mobile app to provide repeat users the ability to open the cooler, grab an item and easily pay for it right from their phone.
As innovation continues to skyrocket, it is increasingly clear that cashless payment is the future. The industry continues to upgrade what operators can offer their end users, making creativity essential when integrating a new payment system.
