Friday, November 30, 2007

Become Brand Focused For Vending Business Products

A brand is a unique identity, idea or opinion attached with any product, company or other commercial elements. In today’s competitive world, everything is branded and the value of a branded item is definitely more than that of any lesser known product.

Like any other industry, the vending industry also recognizes and gives importance to branding to beat the competition. Different vending machines dispense diverse kind of products. Snack and soda vending machines contain a wide range of products and play an important role in the success of your vending business.

Planet Antares vending machines are also very popular and dispense branded, high quality products that result in customer satisfaction as well as higher sales. Before choosing any products to be stocked in the vending machines, you must observe the customer demands and preferences and research the market bestsellers.

There are several ways of studying the market. You may visit vending locations to see which products are most popular and which ones are slow performers. Another way is to ask customers for their desires regarding vending products and fulfill that demand.

Filling your vending machines with branded products will provide various benefits that cannot be reaped while dispensing less known products, branded products sell themselves. This means that you will not have to spend a lot of money on advertising your products, which are already popular among public. These kinds of products are being advertised by their manufacturers through mass media on a large scale.

Surprisingly, the power of branded products to improve vending business sales and profitability is highly undermined. There is need to be more brand focused so that vending operators can beat the retail competition. Coke and Pepsi are popular soda brands which should be placed in your soda vending machine for enhanced sales.

All you have to do is fill your vending machine with good quality, branded items that are preferred by a large number of customers. These are well known and aggressively advertised through various media like TV, newspapers, radio and billboards. Place your vending equipment strategically and sit back as these products sell themselves.

It’s a good idea to sell branded items but this does not mean that you cannot keep other products. Make sure that there is an effective product mix that serves diverse customer needs as well as enables you to make considerable amount of profits. However, don’t ignore the importance of keeping branded products to maximize your business profits and make a good reputation.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Vending Business Technology: GPS

Advances in technology have led to a great number of innovations in the vending machine components and functions. In the United States, vending operators have been investing in new techniques like cashless payment technology, bill validator, etc. Another technology which is witnessing growth at a fast pace is the Global Positioning System (GPS). This enables satellite based monitoring of your vending equipment.

Planet Antares vending machines come with the GPS technology incorporated in them. The other technologies can also be used to make your vending machines perform better than the competitors. If you plan to become a vending machine operator or have already established a vending machine business, there can be many benefits of using the GPS technology in vending equipment.

1. You can get updated information about the driver and vehicle activity including service stops and vending route variations. Check various GPS systems available in the market to ensure that it is worth investing in for your Planet Antares vending machines.

2. Another advantage of using this technology will be in the form of fuel saving. This happens when the GPS system monitors the company vehicle movements to ensure that it isn’t being misused.

3. The speed of the vehicle can also be verified through this technique to avoid fuel wastage or excessive speeding as well as ensure efficient routing.

4. Other benefits include increase in employee accountability, faster response time, lesser wear and tear of vehicles and improved customer relations.

While the upfront cost of getting a GPS system is quite high, the benefits raped by vending operators on using it will make it a worthwhile investment. Not only will it help in business optimization but also, increase the level of customer satisfaction. This means higher profits though more sales and effective use of resources.

Basically, you can invest in two types of GPS systems. These include:

Active system Here, cellular telemetry is used to submit the data to the main office or headquarters. This may also be transferred to a website so that the subscribing company is able to view fleet activity in real time.

Passive system In this case, the data will be uploaded to the main fleet computer after the vehicle returns from vending route to company office. Until then, it is stored for retrieval in drivers. It also incorporates a two way tracking system using low orbit satellites to allow communication between managers and drivers.

If you are thinking of ways to beat the competition or cut operational costs or upgrade technology in your vending business, the GPS system can be an effective solution. In the long run, it will enable you to save more while maximizing the potential for profits.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Business Facts About Coffee Vending Machines

If you plan to start a vending business, there are many options in food and non food vending products and machines. You can spot diverse kinds of vending machines in many places. Among the most common vending machines is the coffee vending machine that can be found in hospitals, airports, office buildings and many other stores and popular locations.

Coffee vending machines offer specialty coffee to customers instantly. They are proving to be fierce competitors of the coffee shops located at many places. A coffee vending machine can prove to be a great business investment if you choose the machine and location carefully.

Planet Antares vending machines are high quality machines with great features. You can even get your vending machines financed from the company to pay for the machines in easy installments. If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, the vending machine provider can locate, refill and maintain the vending equipment on your behalf.

You must focus on the quality of coffee that you offer to your customers. For any vending machine, product quality is imperative to decide its success or failure. When you begin as a coffee vending machine operator, make sure that only fresh coffee is dispensed. Keep in mind that the coffee will get stale after some time and will need to be replaced. If you don’t give freshly brewed coffee to customers, they will not return again to your vending machine.

As a coffee vending business operator, there should be no problem for placing your vending machines. Most stores and business owners will be easily convinced for keeping your coffee vending machine when you approach them. Their employees will be able to get a simple solution to get coffee instead of going out to a nearby coffee shop. If you are willing to spend a little more money, you can offer snacks along with coffee. This will meet the needs of vending machine customers for different products.

If you place your coffee vending machines in a school or college campus, you can expect greater sales. Make sure that there is water placed near the coffee vending machine to make fresh coffee for customers. While some coffee vending machines provide instant coffee with pre-stocked ingredients, there are others which can vend freshly brewed coffee.

After placing the vending machines at strategic places, you must visit them at regular intervals to replenish the supply of coffee ingredients, clean the machines and repair and broken parts.

Keep an eye on technological upgrades in vending machines so that you can enhance customer service. Nowadays, coffee vending machines offer larger coffee cups than the older versions. Also, there are better brewing and thermal systems in these new vending machines.

Friday, November 2, 2007

How To Start A Gumball Vending Business

Starting a gumball vending business involves effective planning and implementation. The gumball vending business faces competition from two main categories- candy vending and soda vending. Gumball vending machines are cheaper and hence, more popular than candy vending machines. Even the sales from gumball vending machine are higher than that of candy vending machines.

Besides this, gumball vending machines have the advantage of being easily placed in different locations within a small space. It is much smaller and flexible as compared to a candy vending machine. This means that you can replace candy machines in local stores with your gumball vending machine. Your revenue can be maximized by placing a gumball vending machine in places that are visited frequently by children and their families.

When you start a gumball vending business, it is essential to buy good quality equipment from a reputable vending machine supplier like Planet Antares Inc. if you want to start a low budget vending business, this is the best way to go. Not only new, but even used or refurbished machines are available. Reliable vendors offer after sale services like servicing, locating and overall repair and maintenance of vending machines.

The price of your product, gumballs, cannot be fixed at a very high level. So, you should try to maximize the number of machines over a period of time to generate substantial returns. A strategically placed vending machine can sell millions of pieces per day and earn huge rewards. So, focus on the place where your gumball vending machine has to be kept to get best results.

Don’t make the mistake of placing your gumball vending machine in direct sunlight. This can lead to deterioration in the quality of your gumball and fading of its color. If these are not fresh and solid, the customers will not come back again to buy gumball from your vending machine. Ensure that your vending machines are installed in a shady, cool so that your gumball remains in good quality and durable.

While looking for locations for your vending machines, you will have to offer a commission to the premises owners in return for keeping your equipment. Unless the location owner waives off the commission for a charity, this cost will be incurred by you. Usually, the commission is based on a percentage of sales from your gumball vending machine.

Even though vending commissions may go upto 25% in some cases, gumball vending machines take very less space in a location and hence, located for a small amount of commission. More popular and high profile the location, higher will be the vending commission charged by them.