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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Most Frequently Asked Questions about Vending Machine Technology

Starting a new business can get a bit scary, especially when the industry you are entering is rapidly evolving. And with the introduction of the latest vending machine technology in India the vending industry is going through a period of growth and disruption. This also means more opportunities for entrepreneurs and brands! And with that come questions.

Team Vendekin Technologies compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions by new vending entrepreneurs and brands as they enter the vending machine industry. And these FAQs have been answered in detail by Vendekin’s marketing and product experts to ease the journey for anyone starting out in the vending industry. So, let’s dive right into these questions...

How much does a vending machine cost in India?

The costs of vending machines may vary depending on its size, type and the customisation done on it. The smallest machine may cost anywhere close to Rs. 1 lakh and may go up to Rs. 8-10 lakhs. Having worked with various vending machine suppliers in India, we have found that a vending machine made to sell delicate products like sweets and snacks can cost between Rs.2.5-3.5 lakhs, while combination machines that have a built in chiller for refrigeration can cost anywhere between Rs. 4-4.5 lakhs.

How often is restocking a vending machine required?

Vending machines are stocked by vending machine operators. Refilling depends on the frequency of sales. And sales depend on the location where the machines are installed. It goes without saying that places with high footfall will see increased usage of the machines. When a new vending operator (NVO) or brand gets onboarded to Vendekin Technologies, they get more than just smart vending machines installed with the latest vending machine technology in India. The marketing team at Vendekin helps identify locations with better footfall. Moreover, with the help of our vending machine management software, vNetra, NVOs and brands in India can track and analyse sales from all their machines as per location and tweak their efforts accordingly.

How big can vending machines get?

Vending machines come in a great variety of shapes and sizes. The smallest machines powered by Vendekin are 3 x 3 feet in height and width, while the biggest Vendekin smart vending machine, a hot food vending machine has dimensions of 6.5 x 5 x 4 feet in height, depth and width respectively. To reiterate, the size of the vending machine purely depends on the product being sold.

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From T-shirts to Panipuris: The Oddest Vending Machines in India

Over the years Vending machines in India have become commonplace. Especially at airports, railway stations, bus stops and hospitals, vending snackables like chips, chocolates, beverages - perfect for the traveller-on-the-go. Or in offices vending a variety of coffee and tea concoctions. But are these the only things vending machines can dispense? While the digital vending machines in India are not dispensing puppies or lingerie just yet (they do in Japan!) things have gotten pretty interesting here too!

The team at Vendekin Technologies has travelled far and wide for research and to install our smart, cashless and touchless vending machines in India and globally. Here’s a compilation of some of the oddest and most interesting vending machines we have come across in India:

Panipuri Vending Machine

A Delhi man has made a touchless golgappa vending machine that dispenses these scrumptious water balls, also known as panipuri, completely sans human contact or touch. From golgappa or product selection to cashless payment to the final dispensation of golgappas — the entire vending machine operation is touchless, says Govind, who has custom designed and developed this contactless vending machine in India.

All you have to do is scan the QR code and make the payment. Once the payment is done, the machine will dispense a sealed pack of golgappas. The pack contains a glass for keeping the mouth-watering flavoured water from four available options — sweet, spicy, hing and mix.

Similarly, a person from Banaskantha district of Gujarat invented a contactless panipuri vending machine. The machine dispenses a panipuri once the user selects the price of their panipuri treat, and inserts the respective cash into the machine. A few seconds later, the vending machine opens a flap underneath the keyboard and out comes a mouthwatering panipuri onto the conveyor belt.

T-Shirt Vending Machine

Vending machines in India only dispense quick food items right? But this Vendekin-powered smart vending machine in Pune sells t-shirts! Installed at Westend Mall in Pune by Universal Classic Tshirts Co., this customised, unmanned "t-shirt shop" has turned many heads, generating organic interest in the brand.

Apart from being an unmanned store, what makes this vending machine even more attractive is the price range and variation of the products. With prices starting at Rs. 399 and an option to choose from 8 different types of t-shirts, this vending machine has become quite the crowd-puller in this Pune mall.  And like all the Vendekin-powered custom touchless vending machines in India, it accepts digital payments, supporting all major payment platforms and e-wallets.

Paan Vending Machine

Pune-based Shaukeen Paan sells their wide range of paans through Vendekin-powered smart vending machines. They were inspired and impressed by the fully contactless vending machine at Chitale Bandhu, also powered by Vendekin. Vendekin Technologies’ team guided them through vending operations and even suggestions about the ideal packaging of their product for the machine. This is perhaps the first contactless vending machine in India selling paan. During the several lockdowns, even as a majority of shops and businesses were shut, this Shaukeen Paan digital vending machine in India would stay operational 24X7, ensuring no stoppage in the sales. Curious as to what mechanism this custom touchless vending machine in India uses to dispense paan? Read our earlier blog detailing the entire journey of how this digital paan vending machine came to be!

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In conversation with Mr Ajit Nair, VP Product at Vendekin Technologies

Continuing with our In conversation… series, this time we decided to sit down with someone we all know as an ocean of knowledge when it comes to the product development of smart vending machines at Vendekin Technologies.

We got talking to the Vice President of Product, Mr. Ajit Nair, an expert in product management and network security, about his vision of making the retail vending experience a truly touchless and cashless experience that works seamlessly across a user’s multiple devices. We also spoke about his philosophy of innovation, product development and the future of vending and Vendekin!

How did it all start for you?

As a child, I was interested in building and repairing things at home. That's where the builder mindset kicked in for me. Over the years that builder mindset shifted to building products for

1. Telecommunication grade Signalling stacks to Billing and Charging stacks, handling millions of calls and billing data daily
2. Network Security stacks
3. Telecom Virtualization products and finally
4. Consumer Applications and SaaS Enterprise software

Subconsciously this builder mindset then shifted to a common thread, i.e every piece of work that was done did make a difference to those around me.

The difference could be in the form of helping people connect with their loved ones, creating systems where people could share their private information to access services without worrying about their data’s security, or even ensuring that a late hunger or craving could be fulfilled late in the night without having to rummage for cash through cashless and touchless smart vending machines.

The shift in mindset has also made me realise how to strategize about a product for the future and make decisions according to what a consumer would look for as a natural progression for the service. This forward-looking mindset has helped my love for building products grow alongside the intention of building a sustainable business. With Vendekin Technologies, the learning has not just been quick but also helped me grow as an individual. To be agile and resist making decisions based on gut, instead relying more on data received from the product and its users.

What technologies do you work with and what products have you developed so far?

I have worked with technologies like microservices architecture, cloud, networks, React JS, JavaScript, Typescript, scalable systems and even old school tech programming languages C, C++. Right from writing code for low footprint systems to large scale systems. Bottom line, I enjoy writing code and building systems that put a smile on the face of the consumer.

The products I have developed so far include SS7 stacks (Signalling System for PSTN), telecommunications mediation product for billing and charging, network security stacks like SSL, IPSEC, EAP, IKE, PKI - Certificate Management, securing a popular gaming console, secure policy management (MAM, MDM) for mobile phones and consumer mobile applications and SaaS Enterprise software for unmanned retail.

What is your philosophy of innovation in product? Enhancing user experience or making operators' lives easier?

As a smart vending machine company in India, end-users and their aspirations are the central theme at Vendekin Technologies when it comes to creating products. This is a philosophy that emanates from Aroon Khatter (Founder and CEO), right down to the teams like product, marketing and sales.

To explain this philosophy further, let me give an example. We have around 30 million cabs in the world today providing services of moving people to move from one location to another. There are at least 10 major platforms bridging the gap between these commuters and cab service providers, such as OLA, UBER, GRAB, LYFT etc. Now imagine, there are around 100 million unattended retail kiosks but no one platform to connect consumers to these machines. That is the problem that the Vendekin’s product team is focused on solving. That of creating smart vending machines. The opportunity is immense with layers of complexity in solving it.

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vNetra: Making Vending Operations Seamless & Digital

The future of retail will be a bouquet of sales channels from ecommerce to quick commerce to instant commerce with vending and yes, even brick and mortar stores. With pandemic induced realities, unattended contactless retail through vending machines will demand a larger and larger chunk of this pie. As these vending transactions become more and more a reality, the key factor will be being able to strategize for maximum profitability with smart management of vending machine operations. And vNetra software, powered by Vendekin, is one of the best vending management software, making cashless and touchless vending solutions a reality all across in India. Here's how!

But before we understand more about vNetra, let’s understand why there is a need for a seamless management platform for EVOs (Existing Vending Operators) & NVOs (New Vending Operators).

The three main reasons why vending hasn't quite taken off in India yet :

1. Lack of digital payment option
2. Lack of digitization of the backend vending operations
3. Limitations of gross margin

Vendekin has been solving these problems sequentially, starting off with the Retrobox device, which upgraded old-school and clunky vending machines smarter and more conveniently, by making cashless and touchless transactions possible.

Next came digitising the supply chain or backend vending operations through vNtera. Digitising can reduce leakage, spillage, which currently in the vending industry costs up to 8 to 10% of a vending operator's stock line. It also brings about more efficiency.

The first module we developed on the vNetra was for the operator to know what is being sold on his/her machine, how it is being paid for. We started to think about how we can be digitising all processes in the back end operations.

But managing the entire process has always been a pain for vending operators. This, because there were many stages where manual involvement was required, whether it was from the perspective of inventory, stocking, or sales and cost management.

What is vNetra. How did the name come about?

vNetra is a Google Cloud powered, GDPR compliant, AI/ML driven back office vending management software for operators and brands to remotely track sales and manage vending machine operations at their fingertips anytime, anywhere in the world!

The name vNetra originally came from a Vendekin team member. The word Netra meaning “eye” in Sanskrit, which fits the bill since vNetra helps the operators have a birds eye view of their vending business operations digitally. Once the Retrobox goes in, the data transfers to the cloud and the operator can access this data through vNetra.

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In conversation with Pranav Kumar, General Manager - Design & Development at Godrej & Boyce

Scan – Select – Pay – Enjoy!

That’s how employees of corporate offices with Godrej & Boyce’s smart vending machines get their coffee and snacks at work, without having to carry jingling loose change or a wad of notes for exact payments of their coffee or tea.

And this touchless vending machine experience in India is increasingly being powered by Vendekin Technologies for leading integrated vending service providers such Godrej & Boyce. Their vending arm, Godrej Vending has used Vendekin Technologies powered solutions to upgrade their vending machine technology to further strengthen their corporate vending solutions and be ready for the touchless and cashless future of unattended retail. Pranav Kumar, the General Manager of the Design and Development at Godrej & Boyce talks about this journey and what is to come…

Please tell us a little about yourself and Godrej & Boyce.

Godrej & Boyce Limited is one of the biggest companies in India in multi-technology products. One of the products we design and manufacture are beverage vending machines. We are in the business of table-top tea and coffee vending machines, and we sell our machines in the domestic as well as international markets like SAARC countries, the Middle East, South Africa, Canada and even USA. We build a wide variety of machines, which can dispense beverages like tea, special and instant coffees, and some specially designed machines even dispense oatmeal.

Our machines have got very good acceptance by customers, due to its technology, flexibility in usage, quality of the output (product) and the varieties we offer in them.

How did the association between Vendekin Technologies & Godrej come about?

We at Godrej & Boyce are entirely into the development of technology for coffee vending machines.  We were looking for a technology partner to provide us with a tech platform to integrate digital payment systems, cloud computing, and IoT (Internet of Things) in our vending machines, in order to make life more convenient for our end-users. That's when we came across Vendekin, who have created an excellent ecosystem of future-ready smart vending machine technology in India. We tested Vendekin's technology with our machines and found them to be flexible and easy to integrate. It took us hardly a month to integrate all our tea and coffee vending machines with Vendekin's tech. With our machines and Vendekin's smart systems, we were able to offer digital payment gateways (for commercial coffee vending machines), consumption reports, inventory management, machine health alerts and many customer-centric offerings to our clients.

How easy was it to set up a Vendekin device on your existing vending machines?

We found that Vendekin’s technology is ready for integration with any kind of vending machine, from the basic machines to the more premium ones. Integrating Vendekin’s technology into our machines didn’t require us to make any sort of changes to our systems or the machines itself. It was as easy as plug and play into our systems.

How do Vendekin powered machines differ from the normal ones?

The machines without Vendekin’s technology are free-vend machines, which means they do not really have any payment systems in them. After integrating Vendekin’s smart vending technology with our machines, they became digital-ready and equipped with digital payment options for India and international markets too. So we were able to offer our machines to our international clients too with digital payment options integrated with payment gateways accepted in their countries.

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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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