Vending

USAT survey: COVID-19 boosts cashless vending

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September 10, 2020

A majority of convenience services operators lost more than half of their sales during the peak of the COVID-19, according to a survey conducted by USA Technologies Inc. The company surveyed 474 businesses, including 336 vending operators, during the peak of the pandemic in early May when most states were in closed phases. The results enabled the company to gauge the pandemic's effects on the unattended retail market.

The company found 27% of the operators pivoted to offering new products and services, including PPE products, and 19% were offering boxed lunches and take-out options.

From the survey conducted in early May, 66% of respondents reported seeing more than 50% of their revenue impacted during the peak of COVID-19, with 48% of total respondents identifying that they were located in a COVID-19 hot spot (e.g., a city or location like New York City or Chicago).

During the month of April, USAT observed the largest decline in average sales per machine. By May, the market showed signs of recovery, being driven by cashless payments, specifically contactless payments.

The cashless terminals analyzed saw a 51% growth in sales per machine overall, with 61.7% of total sales in July 2020 made with cashless payments, versus 53.1% in January.

"The trends towards cashless, specifically contactless, are being driven by consumers looking for more secure and better protected ways to pay for goods and services," Elyssa Steiner, vice president of marketing, USA Technologies, said in the press release. "The adoption of contactless payments has been growing steadily over the past few years.

"However, the onset of COVID-19 certainly has accelerated the demand and use. We believe that this movement towards digital payments of any form, whether credit card, mobile wallet, or such will continue to propagate, as businesses look to provide a safer way to pay for products in person."

For an update on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting convenience services, click here.