Automatic Merchandiser - 27

about 3% over the course of the first 10
weeks of the pandemic. She anticipates
the use of contactless payments in
unattended retail will continue to grow.
Carly Furman, CEO of Nayax LLC,
said, "We see the cashless payment
trend increasing, even while the crisis
is happening, with a shift towards the
use of contactless transactions."
Contactless tapping of an NFCenabled chip card or mobile wallet app
on an EMV-certified terminal, such
as Nayax's devices, does not require
touching a pin pad. This has been
gaining traction in the U.S. since it is
an easy, fast and safe way to pay, Furman said.
"As unattended and vending
machine purchases inherently reduce
person-to-person contact, vending
purchases may very well increase in
demand, especially when the use of
credit card payments via Nayax terminals are available," she remarked.
In addition, major credit/debit
card brands are committing to deploying hundreds of millions of contactless
capable cards in the U.S. by the end of
2020, she noted.
"The ability to offer cashless payment capabilities encourages consumer confidence," she said.
Companies that provide their
employees with micro markets also
seek touch-free payment systems to
assure their employees that the office
environment is safe and in compliance
with state reopening orders, while also
getting them back to normalcy, said
Michael Johnson, co-founder and CEO
of Yoke Payments. Touch-free payment
options, like the Yoke Pay mobile app,
can also make checkout quicker, reducing lines in break rooms. Operators
also are able to directly communicate
and engage with end users.
"With the Yoke Pay mobile app,
operators can accommodate their
locations' new safety guidelines while
continuing to reap the significant
benefits of installing micro mar-

kets instead of vending," Johnson
said. "Operators can grow markets
without the need for a kiosk, reducing costs and accommodating the
new social distancing norms. Our
self-checkout app allows shoppers to
add products to a shopping cart and
check out directly from their phones.
This Yoke Pay enabled grab-and-go
experience gets customers through
the entire checkout process without
touching a shared surface or gathering around a kiosk."
Steiner said some operators have
removed bill acceptors from their
vending machines as they seek to satisfy customers and protect their own
employees from interacting with cash.
Some operators are even encouraging
their clients to stop using cash acceptors entirely.
"While it could be perceived that
[removing cash options] may have a
negative impact on sales, what some
operators have seen is the very opposite - that sales have stayed relatively

Johnson noted that going cashless
eliminates the challenge of counting,
safeguarding and keeping track of cash.
"Offering cashless is currently an
absolute must," Johnson said. "Continuing to have a cash solution on
hand is not a bad idea; you may find
locations that still want it. But the
current conditions have just given
operators a great reason to go all-in
promoting markets over vending
and cashless over cash. This is a rare
opportunity to proactively and without objection convert your business
to a higher grossing, more efficient,
connected and scalable enterprise."
THE VALUE OF CASH

Still, there are some benefits of having
cash, as many consumers still want to
use it.
"We believe that [having a bill
validator] allows a micro market
consumer the capability of deciding
how they want to reload their card or
identification, whether that be with

Adoption was rising for digital payments in the
unattended retail and micro market space, but the
pandemic really helped open people's eyes to the
importance of a touch-free transaction."
Paresh Patel, founder and CEO of PayRange

the same, and that they expect them to
eventually increase over time," Steiner
said. "It's known that consumers are
less aware of price when they use
cashless payments versus cash, where
you typically receive exact change back
each time you pay. Cashless payments
also open up many additional benefits
like selling higher-ticket items or
enabling multi-item transactions, all
of which have a direct impact on consumers spending more each time they
visit your machine or location."

cash or cashless," said Chuck Reed,
VP & GM, vending at Crane Payment Innovations. "We certainly think
that going forward, you - as a micro
market operator - would want to
continue to enable the consumer to
make that choice."
He estimated that roughly half of
micro markets have a bill validator.
While contactless is trending, Reed
cited remarks from René Gottschalk,
the head of the Frankfurt am Main
Health Office, who noted at a Bundes-

August 2020 * VendingMarketWatch.com

http://www.VendingMarketWatch.com

Automatic Merchandiser

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