A vending machine business is a great side hustle for busy people. It only takes a few hours per week to restock and manage your machines, so you’ll earn a lot of money in a short amount of time.
A profitable vending machine can generate $300 per month in revenue or more. So if you have several successful machines, you could take home an extra $1,000 to $2,000 every month with minimal effort.
Here are five tips to help you increase vending machine sales so you can take your side hustle to the next level.
4 Ways to Increase Vending Machine Sales
Add More Payment Options
Providing a variety of payment options is key if you want to increase vending machine sales. At minimum, you should accept both cards and cash. But ideally, you should retrofit your machines to accept contactless payments.
The pandemic has caused many consumers to turn to digital wallets as a safer way to pay. By 2023, it’s estimated that 6.1 billion people around the world will be using contactless payment methods, so it’s essential to accept them if you want to stay competitive.
Sell Healthy Snacks
The pandemic has also changed the way that people snack. Many consumers are trying to lose the weight they gained during lockdown and are seeking out healthier food options.
Consider replacing some of your soda, candy, and chips with more nutritious items. Adding things like juice, coconut water, granola bars, and bags of apple slices may help increase vending machine sales.
Make Your Display Eye-Catching
Another way to attract customers is to make your display more eye-catching. Replacing the lights in your machine with brighter LED bulbs can help make your products pop. Machines with graphics also tend to perform better than plain ones with no design. So having a custom wrap made for your machine may increase sales.
Adding new items or rearranging your current display can also renew interest in your vending machine. Put products with contrasting colors next to each other to add visual appeal to your machine and draw people in.
You should make sure that your display is neat and organized. Although machines with more items have the potential to generate more revenue, try not to cram too many products in. Customers should be able to see each snack clearly so they can decide what to buy.
Give Out Discounts
Discounting certain items can also help you increase vending machine sales. If a customer notices that their favorite snack is on sale, they might purchase extra to stock up. Just make sure that running a sale won’t cause you to lose money.
You can also attach a dollar or two to a few snacks in your machine to give customers an incentive to purchase them. Some vending machine owners even give away a scratch-off lottery ticket to customers, but check to make sure that this is allowed in your state.
Increasing your vending machine sales will boost your income and enable you to meet your financial goals. Let us know how these tips worked for you if you try any of them out.
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Vicky Monroe is a freelance personal finance and lifestyle writer. When she’s not busy writing about her favorite money saving hacks or tinkering with her budget spreadsheets, she likes to travel, garden, and cook healthy vegetarian meals.