Buying vs Renting a Vending Machine – Which Option is Better?

To buy vending machines or rent that is the question!

It is no news that with cashless and automatic vending machines your business can thrive in the US$ 55 Billion vending machine industry. With a mobile inventory, backend data that evolves with your consumer, product-specific customisation and brand labelling, smart vending solutions can give your retail business a positive push.

But, many businesses keep circling around when it comes to the price of vending machines and are in a dilemma of whether to buy or rent a vending machine.

Unravel this conundrum with us.

Buy vs Rent a Vending Machine: A road not taken

A smart vending machine will turn out to be an efficient and future-proof business investment in India. And with the growth of the phygital environment, micro-marketing is becoming a need for every retail business. The consumer expects a contactless, immersive and quicker retail experience, which is effortlessly provided by smart vending machine solutions.

As a business, now is the time to evaluate the pros and cons of renting a vending machine vs buying one.

Buy a vending machine

As mentioned, investing in smart and cashless vending machine solutions will help you establish your business strongly in the upcoming phygital spaces. With over 750 million smartphone users alone in India, owning a cashless vending machine will only enhance the benefits you reap.

Find out all the pros and cons of buying a vending machine:

Pros of buying a vending machine

1. Low investments and ownership of profit:

Most businesses demand high investments, but you can buy a vending machine equipped with the best vending machine software for an average amount of ₹1 lakh to ₹10 lakhs, depending upon its size, private labelling and product-specific customisation.

Buying a vending machine comes with all ownership of the machine and all the profits. Without the periodic deduction of rent, you can further use the earned margin for more efficient business development activities.

With Vendekin’s cashless and smart vending solutions, you start earning profit anywhere between 18 to 36 months. This depends on the product, business strategy, location, the discount provided, etc.

2. More flexibility

Another benefit of buying an automatic vending machine comes as flexibility in product selection, inventory stocking and even pricing. When you rent a vending machine, your choices are limited by what is available with your nearest dealers. This limits the choice of the products you can vend, as different product categories might require different customisations to a vending machine.

Additionally, when it comes to restocking, you need not depend on individual service providers or other supply chains that may turn out to be unreliable in the long run.

3. Better quality of service

Providing cashless and quicker transactions to your consumer is one among multiple reasons your business requires an automatic vending machine. And when you buy vending machines there is a higher chance that you would invest in a brand-new machine with the best vending machine software. In relation to this, the performance and service provided will be way better than a previously used rented machine.

Cons of buying a vending machine

With the whole and sole ownership of vending machines comes the responsibility for their timely maintenance, repair, cleaning and restocking.

With Vendekin’s smart and cashless vending machine, you get free vending machine repairs and fixes for the first year as a part of our warranty.

Rent a vending machine

For many local businesses, the up-front cost of buying a vending machine is the biggest concern before venturing into the vending business. Hence they prefer to rent vending machines instead of buying them. Explore the advantages of renting an automatic vending machine below:

Pros of renting a vending machine

1. Lower Up-Front Cost

The most significant advantage of obtaining a vending machine on rent is that you would have made a minimal investment. The average rental cost starts from around ₹5,000 per month and can go up to ₹15,000. This effectively eliminates the intensity of expenses by cutting the sum cost over smaller periods of time.

This will however depend on the location, product type and size of the automatic vending machine along with the quality of vending machine software it is equipped with. In simple maths, you would have paid over 3-5 lakh in around three years depending on what is available to your nearest vending machine operator.

2. No expense over restocking or maintenance

It is natural that when you rent a smart vending machine the responsibility of restocking, regular maintenance, care and proper functioning of the machine is on the vending machine operators. When you rent a vending machine, these expenses are generally covered by the service provider as mentioned in the rental agreement over a monthly service charge. In most cases, the vendors will offer to stock the vending machine themselves depending on the product type.

You save a significant sum by reducing the cost of maintenance and cleaning when you rent vending machines over a period of time.

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Why Choose a Micro-Market over a Pantry for Your Office

Are the coffee runs in your office taking longer than usual and eating into your team’s productive work hours?

Is finding and refilling tea bags, sugar, coffee and snacks on the pantry shelves a constant nightmare for your team?

Then it is time your office floor or complex got itself a micro market powered by the smart vending solutions from Vendekin Technologies, known for creating the best vending machine software in India and worldwide. Here’s how a micro market can help your office.

What Is a Micro market?

A micro market is a closely condensed convenience store consisting of 2 or more vending machines selling various products through unmanned, unattended retail. It utilises automated self-checkout technology, often combined with cashless methods of payment.

But, can a micro market benefit your workplace? Here are five benefits of incorporating a micro-market into your office space.

Transform Your Break Room

Upgrading to a micro-market powered by the best vending machine software from India upgrades your break room. Instead of a room with beat-up coffee machines and shelves of expired snacks, a break room with smart vending machines with neat rows filled with snacks, beverages and even office supplies makes for a much more modern and convenient break room. It creates an overall improved office experience and subliminally communicates to the office staff that they are valued and their needs matter. Instead of each one going off on their own, often you will find teams gathered around these new-age vending machines or micromarkets during breaks, which overall helps build relationships and morale.

What does this mean for the company? Higher employee morale usually means an overall happier place to work. Additionally, adding a micro-market may also give your business’ reputation a boost as a workplace. Company perks, such as better break rooms and snacks, are highly valued and can even become a talking point helping draw and retain talent.

Greater Office Productivity

Another reason why using a micro-market makes sense for today’s businesses is that it is an easy way to boost your workplace productivity.

Office staff leaving the office for long lunches and coffee breaks can cost a company useful work hours. A micro-market powered by the touchless, cashless vending machine technology from India, can save your team a lot of time. Snacking and even lunch options are available, allowing your staff to easily shop for satiating and nutritious food without stepping out of the office. All in all, having an engaging break room in your office can help your staff save time and stay focused during the day.

More Convenient than Old-school Vending

Micro-markets via smart vending, have done away with hassles of traditional vending machine technology in India or worldwide. It is uncommon now to see users standing around a vending machine fumbling for coins and notes. Vending machine dispensation technology too has upscaled, and it is unusual to see products get jammed in now.

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In conversation with Sharad More, Founder Shaukeen Paan: Opportunities in VENDING Paan

What was the last product you purchased using a vending machine? A packet of chips, a bar of chocolate, or a tetra pack of juice? But, have you ever bought paan from a vending machine?

Mr. Sharad More, the founder and proprietor of Pune’s Shaukeen Paan, talks about vending paan using a Vendekin-powered smart vending machine at his shop and the challenges and the opportunities therein. Vendekin is the provider of intelligent vending solutions through contactless and touchless vending machines in India and the ecosystem required to support a successful vending business.

More from Mr. More.

Please tell us a little about your business?

I started selling paan in 1986, from a tiny setup, just a table with paan products. I was 17, had just left school and did various odd jobs like working in motor garages, before starting Shaukeen – The Complete Paan Shop in Erandwane, Pune. Even then, I had noticed that the way paan shops were run created a negative outlook for the business and its customers. I studied the market, the sentiment of the people, and once I understood the operations side of things, decided to do things a bit differently with Shaukeen. Today it is known as The Complete Paan shop. A place where people of all ages visit and families visit together to enjoy paan. This is not the usual clientele of a regular paan shop. This is because we maintain high levels of hygiene and offer a wide range of products. We currently have 10 shops spread across Mumbai, Nanded, Bauda, Kharadi-Singadh and of course Pune.

How did the idea of using contactless and touchless vending machines for Paan come up? How did you start?

I first had this idea in 2012, after seeing vending machines sell various food products. I spoke to my dear friend Anand Bham, who was into the packaging business and knew the in-and-out of packaging and electronic vending. I got him to build the first machine for me, but I wasn’t satisfied with its operative capabilities. I couldn’t understand the system well and it wasn’t suited to vend paan. Having spent some good money on my first vending experiment, I put this idea on the backburner. During this period, another friend came across a Cashless & Contactless Vending Machine outside Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale. He immediately took me there and we tried it out. That’s when I decided to put this plan into action once again, and try my hand at vending paan again.

How did Vendekin support you in this initiative and journey?

We got in touch with Vendekin, since the touchless vending machine at Chitale Bandhu was powered by Vendekin. We got great support and assistance from “Khatter sir” (Aroon Khatter, Founder, Vendekin Technologies). After multiple meetings and trial runs, with his team at Vendekin guiding us through vending operations and even suggestions about the ideal packaging of our product for the machine, we set up the first machine in just 2 months. The team at Vendekin has been extremely patient with all our questions, and even implemented our requests for several customisations, making our machine a unique one. A perfect example of a smart vending solution. And perhaps the first contactless vending machine in India selling paan! We still have discussions and exchange ideas on what other customisations can be done to the machine, to make vending paan an easier and more interesting experience for the customers.

What changes did you make to the already touchless vending machine for your product?

We created customised boxes made of food grade paper with our branding, as per the requirements of the vending machine slots. The products in this Vendekin-powered vending machine are placed in such a manner that once the order for a paan is placed, it carefully brings the paan down without any spillage. The machine currently holds 80 boxes of paan, and each box contains 2 paans. Our paans are already very popular, and with Vendekin’s intelligent vending solutions, we’re able to keep our paans fresh for up to 3 days in the vending machine.

What kind of products do you keep in this contactless vending machine?

Only paan products as of now, with several varieties and flavours. Our Chocolate Paan is a hit among customers, especially children! They love watching the entire process of touchless vending, right from scanning the QR code, making a cashless transaction on the phone and then magically seeing their favourite chocolate-flavoured paan being dispensed by the vending machine. They are fascinated by it!

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In conversation with our CEO Aroon Khatter: On Setting up a Digital Vending Business

The digital world provides an expansive universe of potential to every brand. And with the pandemic, the march of Indian retail towards digitization has only hastened. This hastening has brought to the fore unmanned automated retail, which allows for each customer to have a personalized shopping experience with minimal human interaction. And smart vending solutions, which are an essential part of unmanned retail and self checkout, are increasingly becoming a part of Indian retail’s digital umbrella, along with e-commerce, delivery apps, and cashless digital payments.

What does this mean for brands and entrepreneurs? Our CEO, Aroon Khatter talks about the digital future of retail through vending machines and unmanned retail in India. Why and how brands can go digital-first with the help of smart vending machines and unmanned retail solutions  in India.

1) Smart vending machines are seeing robust growth in India and the world, what according to you is the reason?

Chief executive of the National Health Authority of India, Ram Sewak Sharma stated that India has 1.18 billion mobile connections, 700 million Internet users, & 600 million smartphones, which are increasing 25 million per quarter. And because smartphones have become ubiquitous, it has increased the customer’s appetite for instant gratification. To match such needs, businesses are constantly having to come up with newer solutions.

An IDC research stated that two-thirds of the CEOs of Global 2,000 companies will shift their focus from traditional & offline strategies to more modern digital strategies to improve the customer experience before the end of the year. Why? Because with each passing day the customer’s need for instant gratification is increasing. We all know that right now, when it comes to purchasing something, it is ‘Buy online & wait!’.

Through Vending Commerce (VCommerce), automatic vending machines in India address a lot of these problems. People do not have to wait for their order. They get it right where they are, right when they want it. The whole experience is contactless and the products is available 24*7. This is not just retail, this is smart retail.

2) Which industries do you think will benefit from the digital-first approach provided by VCommerce or automatic vending solutions and machines in India?

In my opinion, the consumption-theme oriented companies i.e FMCG companies will benefit the most from VCommerce.

For example, let’s say a kid asks his/her parents for an ice cream, at midnight, when restaurants and food apps are no longer delivering. But a smart, unmanned vending machine downstairs in their apartment complex common area can be an accessible purchase point, and that too instantaneously, without any waiting.

There was a preconceived notion, at least in India, about vending machines being only useful for products like packaged snacks at airports. But that is fast-changing. One of our clients at Vendekin, Gadre Sea Food, is in the ready-to-eat seafood business. With our help they’ve installed automatic vending machines in societies, which dispense prawn biryani! All a customer has to do is walk down, make a touchless, cashless payment through their phone, and pick up a prawn biryani with zero-wait and no human interaction. And this is just one example. We have created similar smart vending solutions for Chitale Bandhu, a major snack player in Pune and even a local paan shop called Shaukeen! Apart from providing an extra sales channel, these vending machines also help in increasing their brand recall.

3) According to you, how can traditional businesses become digital-first?

FMCG brands like these have successfully evolved into a billion-dollar industry. In the process, they have adopted a digital-first approach to optimize their internal operations and processes. With the pandemic their customers too increasingly expect the conveniences of a digital-first approach, so in a way it is inevitable. It might take another few years, but it is already happening. We have already had success with several legacy brands like Chitale Bandhu & Haldiram’s adopting Vendekin’s VCommerce platform and technology as part of their omnichannel sales strategies.

Vending and unattended retail operators/SMEs are also finding ways to digitize their operations and sales. Vendekin helps them go digital-first by setting up new avenues of sales with smart vending solutions, or VCommerce.

I truly believe that the next digital wave will be led by SMEs: kirana and other mom & pop stores & small FMCG producers.

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