Each of us must have noticed on the streets special coffee and tea vending machines, payment terminals for replenishing mobile communications, photo printing systems and much more. All these devices belong to the category of “vending machines”. And we will talk about them in this article.
I would like to mention about vending right away that this is a “general” concept, which actually includes a whole sphere of trade. And, of course, in one article it’s not even worth trying to cover some details of this area. We will describe only the most basic things in order to bring the user up to date.
So, let's start with the definition of “vending”. What it is, you may have heard, if not, remember: the term comes from the English “vend” (“to trade”). When this concept is used, it should immediately be clear that we are talking about automatic installations for trade. The term refers to the whole industry in business, based on the offer to the population of goods using automated systems. In our country, when compared with foreign indicators, this area is still practically undeveloped. Therefore, entrepreneurs have a real opportunity to “turn around” in this field.
Benefits
This type of business clearly has its own significant “advantages” that are worth it to start doing it. Firstly, there is no need for a large number of personnel. Since the machine interacts directly with the client, there is no need to hire sellers and consultants - you can write everything in a special instruction and attach it to the trading equipment. Secondly, vending (what it is - you already know) is a wide area in terms of the subspecies of products that you are ready to offer. Let's just say: with the help of vending machines, everyone can distribute not only coffee drinks, but also snacks, shoe covers and generally anything. Plus, of course, you can also deal with the provision of services using mobile communication terminals. Everything that limits you in this area is just your imagination. Thirdly, the vending market, as we mentioned above, today is almost unoccupied (about vending reviews of those who already work here confirm this), therefore there is still enough space for original ideas and solutions. Of course, deciding to install another terminal for replenishment, you will go to a highly competitive market, where it will not be easy to fight for the client. However, if you connect your imagination, you can come up with something original, and try to conquer your niche.
disadvantages
Of course, in such a field of activity as vending (what it is, we already understood) there are also a lot of “minuses”. Firstly, the high cost of commercial equipment. Everything is obvious here: each device has a set of characteristics that allow it to perform the necessary functions. The more complex the car, the more expensive it is. And in order to at least try yourself here, you must purchase (or rent) at least one device. To the costs of the “start” also add the cost of storage, transportation, installation and maintenance of your equipment, not to mention the lease. If in the case of transport and installation, everything is clear, then servicing the same coffee machines is a whole science. You can find a lot of reviews about this business, which indicate the following: what service you provide to your vending machines directly determines your future profit. Did you replenish the device with new products (or ingredients) in time? The client was unable to make a purchase and left you. The same applies to the situation with dirty equipment, which caused a power outage, due to which the car turned off, accepting the buyer’s money, etc. There may be a sea of situations, and you need to predict at least the most difficult of them.
Secondly, the disadvantage of this business is often low margin and long payback periods. Roughly speaking, having spent 30-40 thousand rubles on the device, you will need to wait another 3-4 years in order to return them. At the same time, it needs to be regularly refilled, checked, tuned (depending on the specifics of the business). For all this to make at least some sense (in terms of profitability), you need to have at least 15-20 machines in your work. And their content is already serious work. Vending is generally more complicated than it might seem at first glance.
Thirdly, there is a risk that consumers simply will not appreciate your device properly (or will not figure out how (why) to use it). This can happen for the reason that the service may be new to a person, he will not know how such machines work and so on.
Benefit Factors
If we are talking about a business area such as vending, the business plan here is different from what we see in other categories. It depends on a number of factors that determine whether the whole venture will be profitable or not. An entrepreneur needs to predict them, to predict how each of these and other factors will affect his business.
For example, one of them is the location of the apparatus. We all understand that the machine should be installed where there is a maximum flow of people (potential customers). However, not always placing a point in a busy subway passage or near a large shopping center gives the expected results. The task of such a business is not just to “highlight” its point with the maximum number of people, but to find as many loyal customers as possible. The specifics of the sphere is such that it can be a small office space, where virtually regular customers work.
Another factor can be called design. Agree, you yourself would not come to a sloppy, ugly and untrustworthy apparatus. Instead, each of us would prefer a clean, colorful, modern machine (regardless of the category of product that it offers). Therefore, if you start to engage in such a business, you should know: trading devices (vending tools) should be attractive to the buyer.
Next are the prices. It is necessary to calculate not only the cost of the product and set its margin so that the product does not turn out to be too expensive for the buyer, but also think about the banknotes that the person will pay, and, of course, calculate how the change will be issued.
There are many nuances - advertising a machine, renting, providing resources for trade, protection, collection and logistics ... All these processes, one way or another, create additional problems. Trading devices (vending in general) have a wide range of settings that you need to manage in order to start making a profit.
Activities
Of course, in addition to the usual coffee machines and terminals, there are many other types of machines for automated trading. We can initially divide them into two categories - those that are engaged in the sale of goods, as well as those that provide services to the end customer.
The first group is divided into three more industries (by its specificity) - the sale of ready-made food or drinks (coffee, soda, popcorn and so on); sale of snacks (products in packages - bars, cookies), as well as the sale of any other goods (flowers, shoe covers, etc.).
The second group of which vending consists is coffee machines for the provision of services. It is difficult to make any kind of separation, since there is a huge list of types of services provided through terminals. The first thing that comes to mind in most cases is replenishment of accounts of mobile phones, the Internet and other things. Also, through the terminals, you can pick up parcels (postomats), pay for parking, queue up and so on.
Now we briefly describe the features that each of the categories has.
Terminals
Perhaps the busiest industry in this area due to its profitability. If the terminal costs 50-60 thousand rubles, then it is able to recapture the invested funds quickly enough (you just need to choose the right operator with whom you will work and receive partner deductions). The main trick is to place the device within the reach of a large audience. And since today terminals appear like mushrooms, another nuance is competition. It is necessary to make sure that people nearby do not use other terminals (of which there are probably quite a lot), and this is already a vending technology. What it is? These are all kinds of so-called chips. For example, set a minimum commission, or equip a more convenient place to work with the machine than competitors. Think of how to attract the attention of a passerby, and still make him make a recharge.
Coffee machines
In the coffee trade market, this is also not very simple. Coffee machines appeared on our streets for a long time, and after them grew large networks of companies serving several thousand devices. As you understand, it is useless to confront them on the issue of purchase costs - such structures can set lower prices, offering high service. And the price for a coffee machine is higher than for the same payment terminal. Therefore, be prepared for hard work and applying new original ideas to attract customers. Correctly select coffee for vending (what kind of grades these should be, you can find out only after conducting some practical tests and experiments).
Snack machines and other products
A less busy niche can be called the sale of bars and other packaged products. However, again, the cost of devices for trading them is an order of magnitude higher than in the case of coffee machines and terminals. And you will have to compete when starting such a business not with other vendors, but with cafes, canteens and buffets - depending on where the device will be installed and what it will sell.
You can earn here, but only after applying a number of settings for the entire business. And to figure out how to trade (besides bars) is not so difficult. For example, you can deal with the implementation of contraceptives in places of youth gathering (clubs, bars and pubs); or offer disposable shoe covers on the first floors of hospitals. Each of these examples has been working for a long time, but if this is not the case in your city, you simply have to try!
Services
The scope of services in a business such as automated trading is simply an untoward field (especially in Russia). All that you rest against is the idea and the corresponding vending equipment. And so you can come up with and develop a draft apparatus of any direction. From the most innovative, you can recall, for example, the terminals for printing photos from Instagram: the user enters the account information, finds the desired picture and puts it into print.
Abroad, there are thousands of similar cars in the streets, while in Russia only the first timid steps in this direction are observed. It’s hard to say whether they will develop enough for us to have a “revolution of trade apparatuses” either. The original installation (vending machine) is tens of thousands of rubles to produce and, possibly, hundreds to create a design and develop all kinds of drawings. Not everyone is ready to allocate such funds to the experimental industry.
Profit calculation
We talked about the most general, basic concepts and categories that apply in the field of vending. Now let's pay a little attention to how to calculate your possible income in this business. For this, you need to draw up a vending-oriented business plan.
It should include: the approximate volume of sales (per day), the number of workers for the device of the day, the cost of raw materials and machine maintenance, rental rate, the final cost of the finished product. Having added all these indicators, you get a sales plan for the next time. Following it, you will have the opportunity to recoup your investments for a certain period (which is also customary to specify in business plans).
For example, we have a coffee machine worth 120 thousand rubles. We put it in a business center, where rental costs are another 500 rubles. In addition, we take cups, coffee, sugar and sticks for stirring - let it all cost at a cost of 4-5 rubles per glass; we plan to sell at 20. Machine maintenance will be, say, 400 rubles a month. We consider: with 25 business days and 30 sales per day, we can earn about 15 thousand rubles (total income). Of these, about 3,750 rubles will be spent on raw materials, 500 on rent and 400 on maintenance (10,350 rubles will remain). Excluding another 2 thousand taxes, we will have about 12 years of payback per machine. We increase sales, we seek to reduce the purchase price - and the indicators are changing significantly.
Prospects
Is there a future for the vending market? Of course. The farther, the more relevant becomes the issue of automation, simplification of processes, and attraction of less energy-intensive resources. With all this in mind, business in this area becomes an opportunity for everyone to show their ability to analyze and forecast, and thus begin to show their entrepreneurial skills. And who knows, maybe your success in the field of vending machines is just around the corner!