MALVERN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- USA Technologies, Inc. today announced that it has added The Cuyahoga Group, a member of the Canteen Franchise Group, to its growing list of ePort Connect® customers committing to a fully connected operation. USAT will provide state-of-the-art cashless and telemetry services that enable and track the acceptance of cash, credit/debit cards, and mobile wallet payments such as Google Wallet and Apple Pay through its NFC-capable ePort Connect cashless payment system.
"For the past 25 years, we have built our company name on providing outstanding customer service, operating 95 full-service vending routes, servicing approximately ten thousand machines. With consumers demanding card and mobile payment technology, it was critical that we make the transition to cashless," said Vince Variglotti, Vice President of Operations, The Cuyahoga Group. "USAT is the perfect partner as it not only helps us upgrade the technology in our current machines, but also provides full support from purchase to deployment. The transition has been seamless, and we feel we are getting the most out of our investment."
Through the engagement, the goal of USAT's model market program that includes planning, project management, installation support, and marketing, including funding support and performance evaluation, is accelerating consumer adoption through site-specific marketing support and strategic deployment planning. Based on a four-month period, the total annualized yearly cashless sales on new equipment are over $580,000 higher than on previous cashless deployments without cannibalizing cash sales. Similarly, the average transaction on new deployments is $0.14 higher than the average transaction on old deployments and amounts processed through NFC (Mobile Wallets) as a percentage of overall transactions amounts is growing.
A second-generation family business founded in 1988, The Cuyahoga Group brings a reputation for stellar customer service. The company saw an increasing demand for cashless options, not only from consumers in general but its own customers due to growing awareness of the increased efficiencies and the ability to drive additional sales through cashless and mobile technologies.
"We anticipate that paper money will, in the future, become obsolete. Therefore, the transition to cashless and mobile payments makes perfect sense," said Jim Turner, Vice President of Deployment Services, USA Technologies. "We believe large scale ePort installations like this are driven in part by the introduction and expansion of our premium services, and are representative of a paradigm shift in the unattended retail marketplace. Both industry trends and accelerated adoption rates by industry thought leaders like The Cuyahoga Group, lead us to believe that 'smart' machines equipped with telemetry, cashless and NFC acceptance are rapidly becoming the rule rather than the exception for the self-serve industry."
In addition, the company has signed up for USAT's Premier Support Services offerings, which provides companies access to a bundle of premium, best-in-class support services including deployment planning, project management, installation support and optimization, marketing and performance evaluations, as well as funding support. Under their most recent agreement, The Cuyahoga Group has agreed to purchase 3,000 additional ePorts for their vending, office coffee and self-service market locations across northeastern United States and central Ohio.
