Vagabond To Re-vīv The Consumer Vending Experience At NAMA OneShow

Washington, DC, April 12th, 2017 - Vagabond (vgbnd.co) announced the launch of vīv, a revolutionary new retail purchasing platform, on stage at Google Cloud’s Next conference in San Francisco. Vagabond’s vīv mobile apps allow consumers to walk up to any vending machine, scroll through a menu of products, review product details, and make a purchase using whatever form of payment they want. The product is delivered without the consumer ever touching the machine. This is an exciting development for the unattended retail industry because the vīv platform creates direct and personal relationships between operators and consumers. Vending operators gain access to Vagabond’s instant Insight telemetry hardware, vīv cashless platform, and the vending management software (VMS) of their choice for just $10 per month. vīv represents a continuation of Vagabond’s founding premise to provide solutions that reduce the cost of operating vending machines. In this case, Vagabond has extended that mission to help operators increase revenues and delight their consumers in the process. 

Vagabond broadens its approach to resolving unmet needs in the unattended retail industry with vīv. In 2011 Vagabond pinpointed a lack of VMS options for small and mid-sized vending operators and created the first mobile and MDB powered VMS, allowing live data to source the VMS in smart devices operators already own. Vagabond developed and released its Insight telemetry hardware in 2014 to enable operators access to instant telemetry data for their VMS at a fraction of the capital and operating costs of connecting with traditional credit card readers. Still, since many operators lack access to the capital and labor resources needed to deploy technology solutions required to increase profitability, Vagabond developed the One Rate consulting and financing solution in 2015. With One Rate, Vagabond’s project teams manage the procurement, installation, integration, training and administration of technology for one affordable monthly fee. Today’s release of vīv results from traditional cashless solutions being too expensive to make sense for many locations and from operators wanting to differentiate themselves to consumers. 

vīv's commerce offering provides vending operators with the tools to distinguish their business while empowering them with instant telemetry data for their VMS. Vagabond VP of Product and Market Strategy, John Powell, states “vīv provides the least expensive, most powerful and beautiful consumer experience that the industry has seen in the last 40 years. Not since the bill acceptor and coin changer has the industry made such a great leap forward in a consumer’s experience.” In addition to providing an engaging experience to consumers, vīv has powerful technology under the hood. vīv creates direct relationships with consumers to enable operators and brands to get to know their preferences. The platform also knows where consumers are located because of geolocation capabilities powered by Vagabond’s partnership with Google. Since vīv instantly knows which product is selected, brands can interact with the consumer as purchases happen by catering targeted promotional and loyalty programs to particular machines, specific consumers, individual products, time of day and other variables. 

Vagabond has been deploying the first thousand Insights that enable vīv throughout Q1. Vagabond Founder and COO Juan Jorquera stated, “We’re very excited to partner with a dozen full service vending operators in key markets across the US that we view as innovators. We work with each operator to target accounts to ensure successful vīv adoption and have been pleased to see that 49% of purchases at vīv-enabled machines are from consumers using the mobile commerce platform.” The vīv technology brings numerous benefits other than a beautiful buying experience and point of sale interaction, including remote pricing and the ability to charge a premium for purchasing through the vīv service. Vagabond’s instant telemetry network enables pre-kitting and curbside polling for operators of every size. vīv’s flexible platform integrates with VMS and ERP systems other than Vagabond. As a result, Seed Office, VendMAX and EASITRAX users can reserve Vagabond Insights to incorporate vīv in their operations. 

Vagabond is producing 10,000 Insights, which are available to reserve on its website. “We’re excited to provide a solution to unattended retail businesses that rivals the item level tracking capabilities of other retail environments. vīv allows every stakeholder in the retail process to proactively contribute to the consumer experience as well as business’ bottom line. Happier consumers help our members sell more product while our communications network provides operators with the tools necessary to reduce operating costs and dramatically increase profitability”, mentioned Vagabond Founder and CEO, Michael Lovett. Vagabond will feature vīv, One Rate and their VMS platform at this year’s NAMA OneShow April 19-21st at The Venetian in Las Vegas, NV. 

About Vagabond 

Vagabond (vgbnd.co) provides technology, operations and commerce solutions for the food and beverage services community. Vagabond’s software enables operators to triple profits by dynamically managing schedules, inventory, routes and financials. Vagabond allows all stakeholders with access to instant data delivered by the industry’s most flexible communications network. Vagabond’s One Rate program allows operators to tap into Vagabond’s project implementation and banking resources to quickly deploy technology to enhance profits in existing operations and to acquire other vending routes to scale quickly. Vagabond’s vīv commerce platform enables businesses to delight consumers with a beautiful retail experience while establishing direct relationships between brands, retailers and consumers.