Vending in the post-pandemic era

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit humanity hard. Starting in the end of year 2019, it has disrupted man-kind lifestyles, social and economic activities in all aspects and angles. The retail industry is one of the high impact zones as it heavily relied on the flow of foot traffic and social activities which are restricted in most cities around the world ever since. Vending operations are not spared under this circumstance unfortunately. As many used-to-be high-traffic vending locations like airports, shopping malls, offices and schools are turning into sparely populated areas, vending operators are facing the fierce challenges to sustain and endure the pandemic.

During this time, e-commerce and online retail have nonetheless taken over even much more of the physical retail portion of the economic pie. Some brick-and-mortar retailers have closed while some holding on for the dawn after long dark night. It always gets worse before it gets better and it is happening now. Retailers and vending operators need to suit up for the reshuffled market and new game rules in the post-pandemic era.

Humans are social creatures. They roam and mingle. It has been so for millenniums and will always be so as long as time flows. E-commerce will continue to play an important part in the new world after the pandemic but physical retails are indispensable to human nature. We always enjoy the freedom to move around and meet with friends and families in all different places, where physical retails will continue to receive demands.

During the pandemic, while some locations are highly impacted due to the reduced foot-traffic, vending locations in the proximity of the residential areas gets more patronage and rendered better sales than before. This trend is expected to remain so in the post-pandemic era to different extent as many of the citizens will continue to work from home or reduce shuttling to work locations. While the vending operators would grow their location network in the residential areas, they should also look into diversifying their offering of merchandises and services from their vending machines which would elevate the convenience to their existing client base. At this moment, some might think that simply putting in all different types of vending machines operating independently would just fulfill this purpose. Indeed, this does not really fill in the gap of the consumer’s heart seeking for convenience shopping. Linking up multiple types of vending machines in the master/slave combination to sell more variations of products need be achieved without compromising the user experience by maintaining the same purchase flow on the same point of purchase and same interactivity with probably only the exception of collecting the dispensed product from different machine. The users should be able to purchase multiple items in a way of virtual shopping cart in a single transaction. Besides, the vending machines combo, which plays the role of more like a convenience store, should be capable of combining multiple types of vending machines such as vending locker cabinets for larger items, hot/cold beverage and coffee vending machines, frozen vending machines for frozen foods and so for more choices of shopping convenience.

Working spaces like offices and factories are hoping to bring more convenience to their employees to reduce their needs of going out for foods and meals hence reducing the risk of infection from outside. This leads them to install all sorts of vending machines, micro-markets and smart fridges in the offices and factories regardless of the sizes of the companies. Smart vending machines with employee dispense control features allow the companies to also offer free and subsidized drinks, snacks and foods to their employees based on specific rules and criteria defined by the company management. Besides bringing convenience and keeping their employees safe, it has also helped boost the morale of the overall workforce.

Vending operators must also take care of the general concerns for public hygiene and safety in the post-pandemic times. The consumers are generally now more particular and demanding about personal hygiene and looking for worry-free experience in all their public encounters including those with vending machines. Touchless and contactless capability is no longer luxury but fundamental on each and every vending machine. Vending operators should ensure that all their vending machines are capable to allow the users to purchase from their vending machines without touching the common points from making selections of products to making payments. These can be achieved by using smart vending technology like touchless vending interactions which allows the users to use their mobile phone to interact with the vending machines to view and select products as well as contactless and cashless payments.

Personalizing customer experiences does not only apply to the retail stores. Vending machines must get rid of its stereotype as cold metal boxes sitting in the dark corners used only in the after hours. Vending machines must evolve into providing personalized experiences to its consumers in strategic and targeted ways. Vending machines shall also support shopping cart, combo purchases, promo codes, members discounts and privileges. The vending operators can also analyze the sales trends in various locations and hours of its vending machines to plan its product offerings and pricing strategies as well as optimizing its restock operations to ensure continuous stocks availability in all its vending machines to bring better consumer experiences to its community. This shall increase customer loyalty which further drive the sales of the vending machines.

This will be a turnaround time for vending machines and vending operators, especially for those who are embracing the changes and seeing it as an opportunity to leap into new levels.