With around 65 lakh potential set-up locations across 500 cities in India, smart and cashless vending solutions are driving the Indian vending market at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.9% (2020-2026). Moreover, as more brands are gearing up for phygital retail markets in India with automated and touchless vending machines, it has become vital to target the right location and spaces for your products to get more profitable returns.
But, what are some good locations for vending machines?
In all honesty, a vending machine can be installed anywhere from offices to subway stations and from departmental stores to housing apartments, depending on your target consumer and business needs. That being said, it is important to consider various factors that make a space more suited to install a smart vending machine with cashless payment solutions.
Location Matters! Here’s why
India hosts 40,000 hospitals, 249,000 factories, 113,000 public places, countless workspaces and residential apartment complexes that can turn into the right opportunity to upscale your retail business with low-risk and cost-effective cashless vending machines. What connects all these varied spaces are factors like comparatively high footfall, power availability, product-specific demand, rent, distance from the warehouse, etc.
1. Daily Footfall
Vending machines and cashless vending solutions are meant to serve people. Hence the most ideal locations to install a vending machine are places with significantly high foot traffic or visitors. With high footfall, the chance of attracting impulse and habitual buyers increases. In either case, your business revenue will increase. Touchless vending machines with digital payment solutions have a higher advantage as the transaction becomes quick and secure in places that host large crowds.
Moreover, by placing strategically branded vending machines, you can really get some brand recall going in places with more eyeballs. Know more about Private labelling services by Vendekin here.
2. Power Availability
All automated and cashless vending systems are electrically operated, hence, to retrieve benefits from your vending business, you must ensure constant availability of electric power or at least a backup generator. Additionally, this is a must for food and beverage businesses planning to go the smart vending machine route since their product will often require an in-built refrigerator or food-heating oven.
3. Demand and behavioural trends
The simple rule of demand and consumer behaviour applies to Instant Commerce as well. This has only been elevated with smart vending machine payment solutions. For instance, at workspaces in India, employees and visitors are accustomed to tea, coffee and light snacks. Hence the demand for a tea/coffee vending machine or a touchless snacks vending machine is high.
Likewise, for a nutrition bar and juice products, gyms and parks are profitable locations.
With the right information and proper understanding of the behavioural patterns of the target audience and the demand trends of the places they visit, placing a smart vending machine is easy.
4. Distance from the warehouse
Smart vending machines too require stock re-filling as and when required. So having a vending machine installed strategically nearby a warehouse or in a well-connected area is a plus for your business. As a result of which the cost of logistics goes down significantly.
Vendekin’s smart and cashless vending solutions come with vNetra, a GDPR-compliant, AI/ML-driven back office vending management software that tracks the inventory level of the vending machines along with other rich data points around sales, discounts, margins and user consumption behaviour.
Can a vending machine be placed anywhere?
A smart vending machine can be placed anywhere, but for the best returns in your buck, strategy around location is key.. Depending on the space available, the location and the kind of product being vended, Vendekin will provide your business with customised vending machine solutions.
