Vending machines offer unique opportunities for business growth. While these machines are often associated with the break room or vending-token sales of the past, modern vending machines have grown to be much more. Vending machines provide a secure and profitable way to sell food and drinks without needing to hire staff. They are versatile and offer various ways to expand your business. Here are the top five strategies to grow your vending machine business.

Add Products That Cater to a Niche Audience

If your vending machine’s current sales are strong, but you’re looking for ways to grow your vending business, add products that cater to a niche audience. Become the go to place for specifically desired products. For example, if your vending machine is in a school, you may want to offer products like soft drinks, energy drinks, ice cream, and snacks such as hot dogs, sausage, and more to your menu. The same goes for vitamins, protein bars, or anything else that appeals to a more health conscious audience. By choosing to serve a niche audience, you can increase your vending machine sales without adding any risky products that may not perform as well. You can also consider adding products that appeal to specific dietary preferences. Vending machines are highly customizable so that you can add almost any product.  

Add the Latest Vending Machine Technologies

You can further grow your vending business by adding the latest technologies to your vending machines. For example, many new vending machines have a touchscreen menu that allows customers to see product images, videos and add up to three items in their shopping cart. Credit card, debit card and mobile payment vending transactions have gained popularity due to convenience as well. Our Greenlite cashless system provides backend software to track inventory and sales so you only take what you need to the machine when you go to restock products. According to a Cantaloupe and Michigan State study over 50% of vending purchases are made with card readers and 69% of sales are cashless. Ultimately, having a cashless system for your machines will allow you to vend to more customers, increasing your vending profits! 

Build a Brand Through Your Vending Machines

Vending machines are a great way to sell your products in high-traffic areas where people already congregate. Vending machines can serve as compact mini-stores covered with your branding and filled with your products. Customers will be able to see your company’s name and logo every time they purchase a product. Vending machines can be placed where your target market is, making them ideal for building a brand and customer base.

Add New Vending Machines To Increase Profit

If you find that your current vending machine sales have reached a plateau, you can grow your vending business by adding new vending machines. Vending.com has great flexible financing packages available to help you increase your income with brand new machines. You may do this by adding new vending machines in areas with a poor vending service currently. Adding vending machines that offer high-margin items can help increase profit. If your break room is jam-packed with customers, you can add additional vending machines to reduce line times and increase productivity. 

Maintain Equipment Regularly For Durability

Adhering to a regular maintenance schedule can help keep your equipment running smoothly (and your clients satisfied!). Good maintenance will also assist in avoiding larger, more expensive issues in the future. Customers are more inclined to purchase if the exterior of your equipment is well-maintained and polished. Your machine will operate better and last longer if the mechanical components are well-maintained. 

Maintaining your refrigeration unit is one of the most important ways to keep your machine running effectively. We recommend replacing your air filter every 3 months and brushing under your machine’s air intake grill every month. Also, make sure your machine is positioned at least 4 inches away from the wall to allow proper air flow from the refrigeration system.

Install a Vending Machine With a Loyalty Program

Give your customers a way to earn free products by installing a loyalty program on your vending machines. Customers might be required to earn a set number of points before they can redeem them for free products, or they can redeem points whenever possible. Either way, it is easy to grow your vending business sales without increasing the number of vending machines. You can use a loyalty program to reach a broad audience as well as a niche audience. A reward program encourages repeat sales if your vending machine sells products that appeal to all types of customers, such as snacks and drinks. Customers who use the vending machine will earn points toward free products.  

A loyalty program increases motivation for customers to return to purchase from your vending machine. You may also set up a program so that only employees earn points toward free products. You can increase vending sales and generate more revenue by offering a points redemption option. Moreover, the program requires little to no maintenance other than restocking the vending machine and printing the occasional rewards.