USA Technologies, Inc., a provider of wireless, cashless payment and M2M telemetry solutions for small-ticket, self-serve retailing industries, announced that based on its July 2011 survey of over 10,000 traditional vending machines utilizing its ePort cashless payment system, consumers, on average, spent one-third more when making a cashless purchase than a cash purchase. In addition, cashless purchases made up approximately 26 percent of all sales at these vending machines.
These findings are based on the latest sales analysis completed for the month of July 2011, encompassing over 9 million cash and cashless transactions on over 10,000 traditional vending machines selling snacks, beverages, food and coffee, fitted with a USA Technologies ePort cashless payment system.
Combined with USA Technologies' JumpStart program, which the company believes offers operators the industry's lowest total cost of ownership for cashless/telemetry solutions, the company estimates that these positive trends result in increased returns for USAT's customers on machines where the ePort cashless payment system is installed.
Highlights of this study include:
- Consumers spent 33 percent more, or $0.37 more per transaction, when they used a card versus cash on a machine equipped with an ePort, increasing the average transaction from $1.13 to $1.50;
- Cashless usage was approximately 26 percent of total sales on machines equipped with an ePort -- up 73 percent from 15 percent usage in a similar study conducted just three years ago.
Jim Turner, vice president of deployment planning services, USA Technologies, said in a prepared statement, "The results of our recent analysis indicate that consumers are spending more at cashless payment systems on self-service retail terminals like vending machines. We believe that this is helping to improve sales and returns for our customers in an industry battling rising product and labor costs, while also struggling to increase prices due to the limitations of a cash payment environment. Using USAT's knowledgebase, the industry's most extensive database of cashless intelligence for this market, our team of deployment professionals can help ensure success for our customers who implement our ePort solutions within their business, by leveraging real world performance data to guide them to the best locations within their base of accounts in order to maximize their investment."
USA Technologies believes that the increase in average spend per transaction, increased consumer usage and positive results for ePort customers have driven accelerating adoption of its ePort cashless payments technology. This is evidenced by the fact that the number of customers on the ePort Connect Service has risen from approximately 1,000 at June 30, 2010 to approximately 2,000 at June 30, 2011, or 100 percent, and connections on the service have risen from approximately 82,000 to approximately 119,000, or a 45 percent increase over the past year.
Maeve McKenna Duska, vice president of marketing, USA Technologies, concurred, "We believe that increasing consumer adoption of cashless payment technology and the opportunity for better returns for vending operators may signal that our industry has reached an inflection point. USA Technologies has been at the forefront of this industry evolution with its easy to implement, scalable, turn-key hardware and software solutions. And we continue to strengthen our value proposition, from the appealing economics of our JumpStart program to the profit-maximizing strategies of our propriety Business Deployment Planning Program. In addition to positively impacting our customers' business, this powerful combination is contributing to USA Technologies own year-over-year growth in customers and connections."
Owners and operators of vending machines and other unattended retail terminals interested in understanding the latest data/trends outlined in this release and/or would like more information on how USA Technologies' ePort cashless payment system can positively impact their business are encouraged to contact USA Technologies at 800-633-0340. Visit us online at www.usatech.com. Learn more about the JumpStart program at http://www.usatech.com/eport/eport_jumpstart.php.
