Types of Vending Machines for Your Business

5 Minute Read

Vending machines are an excellent option for your business to improve the customer experience while generating revenue simultaneously. They offer more options than you think and provide an unattended resource for customer satisfaction.

Are you considering installing vending machines in your business? Before deciding which type to get, let’s review the different types of vending machines to help you make a choice.

Food and Drink Machines

Bulk vending machines that offer a variety of food and drinks provide customers with convenient options without the need for a kitchen. Here are a few examples of the different types available:

Soft Drink

When people hear the word vending machine, they think of soft drinks. However, some machines offer alternatives to soft drinks, such as bottled water. Seltzer, sparkling water, vitamin water, and flavored water are just a few types of water available in these machines. With consumers’ changing habits regarding sugary drinks, it’s crucial to offer a variety of options.

Snack

Popular snack items include candy bars, chips, and chocolates. Machines specializing in one kind of snack are also available (e.g., cookie and chip machines).

Snacks are great for grab-and-go at locations. However, if you’re looking for vending machines to deliver various snacks, you’ll need snack combo machines.

Coffee

Coffee and tea are as popular as ever, so having options is essential. They are becoming increasingly popular in self-service workplaces, such as offices and conference rooms, as well as in business-to-customer services, including gas stations.

Cooked and Frozen Vending Machines

These types of machines are great for event management. For example, you may host various events, both outdoor and indoor, such as weddings, conferences, sports, or birthday parties. Offering fresh-cooked or ice-cold food and drinks is an excellent way to keep your customers happy.

Hot food vending machines, featuring items such as hot dogs, burgers, and fries, are popular at sports events. In contrast, for your outdoor visitor attractions, ice cream vending machines keep customers relaxed as they walk around your venue and enjoy themselves.

Combo Vending Machines

These are a popular all-in-one solution for those on a budget, as they allow for an array of items in one machine. They’re great if you want to provide various snacks or drinks but don’t want to overspend on buying them separately.

These vending machines are great in areas with high foot traffic. They offer customers a variety of snack and beverage options. You won’t have to purchase different machines for different products; you can even combine combinations that serve everyone’s needs.

High-traffic locations that make great spaces include the reception rooms, hallways, and canteens of larger workplaces.

Other Types of Vending Machines

It’s worth noting that not all vending machines offer food and drinks. Here are some examples of other ideas that you may not have thought of at first:

Merchandiser

This type is most popular with hoteliers who offer toiletries to their customers. However, in some large industrial or office settings, they are also helpful in vending supplies such as medical kits. Other examples include toilet paper, tissues, pens and pencils, and even copier cartridges.

These items can be found in many office settings to provide essentials such as business cards, pens, pencils, and staplers. They’re good if your staff constantly runs out of or needs these supplies.

Although most industries offer their staff an unlimited supply of such items, these machines are more commonly found in communal workspaces. One example of such a space is a media hub, where freelancers work in an open-plan office space.

Outdoor Machines

Outdoor vending machines offer a variety of snacks and drinks, making them a great addition to parks, gardens, or outdoor office spaces.

Not only are there outdoor versions of food and drink machines, but you can also offer outdoor items in them. They can also help with emergency supplies if you run camps, activity businesses, or leisure facilities that provide towels and energy supplements.

Smart Vending Machines

Contactless payment and collection are some of the most popular use cases. Not touching the machine is very useful for anyone working in environments where contamination is prevalent. Examples of these include a laboratory or food factory. Some machines even allow you to reserve and pay for goods via smartphone apps.

Customized Vending Machines

People have customized vending machines since the first vending machine was invented in Greece over 2000 years ago. The most popular method is branding an existing vending machine model with your decals and graphics.

We can customize vending machine graphics to match branding requirements.

Speciality Vending Machines

These are great in waiting rooms or locations with many people sitting around, such as a medical practice. They’re also ideal for areas with long queues and waiting times.

A novelty vending machine can also be an effective marketing strategy for product launches. You can customize the exterior and place your new product inside, or if your launch product is too large or you’ve a big budget, you can always vend your branded goods for free.

Some recent novelty trends include schools using Book Vending Machines for their educational programs and candy-themed machines, such as the Skittles Remix Digital Kiosk.

Make the Most of Your Choice

Vending machine options can provide an alternative to an in-house kitchen, increasing customer satisfaction and reducing on-site time. In the future, it’s about delivering better, more efficient services than anyone else to win over your team or visitors.

We hope we’ve shown you how to make the most of a vending machine in your business. Take a look today and see how we can refresh it!