Vending time

With the growing consumer base, new trends are emerging in Pakistan and opening new avenues of entrepreneurship like online shopping, online food ordering, and online property portals, etc. Similarly, new business ventures are also entering and one such new trend are the vending machines.

Bilal Khan, the cofounder of Easyvend a Karachi based venture in an interview with The News gave insights to the company is Regal Insignia and its product EasyVend.

Q. How did this idea come about?
A. A snack and beverage vending machine is used world over as a fully automated stand-alone facility to cater to the consumers’ quick snacking needs within their premises. I realised this problem in Pakistan as a college student with far located and time bound canteens, as a hospital patient or visitor who has to sit for hours without access to drinks or snacks, as an office worker with no snacking source within the building, as well as a public place visitor who cannot get a quick bottle of water, a cold drink or a snack without having to go look for the nearest available shop. I thought of introducing this in Pakistan.

Currently, smart vending machines installed at various locations in Karachi such as educational institutions, offices, malls, etc and are rapidly expanding their footprint. They offer E2E vending services from installation to machine filling, replenishment and full technical support.

Q. What were the initial problems getting it on ground?
A. We faced a number of problems in terms of having no technological guidance in Pakistan, where to source it from, and how to make it viable and user friendly for our market, to name a few. We had to work from scratch to resolve all these problems. For starters, we found that no company is making an adequate currency acceptor for Pakistani rupee as no vending machine business existed here. We had to convince companies by showing them business potential in our market.

Finally some features were added, like introduction of currency and coin acceptors which possess state-of-the art currency recognition and anti-counterfeit technology. Our machines accept Rs 10, Rs20, Rs50, and Rs100 notes as well as Rs5 coins. They also give back change in form of coins. A lot of effort was put in to develop this technology to ensure our machines are not dependent on new currency notes, but can accept old looking notes as well. This is tailor made for Pakistan as in the US and many European countries, the vending machines still run on coins.

Moving forward, we have successfully tested and are set to introduce cashless vending purchases, in which customers can make purchases by swiping prepaid cards on the machine, which will eliminate the need of carrying cash for using the machines. The machines are fully tailored for the local market, and dispense a wide variety of beverages in form of cans, juices, pet bottles and different types of snacks such as biscuits, chips, chocolates, and sandwiches, etc.

Q. How much is the demand and what is the response?
A. I will talk about the response later, first let’s understand the demand. There are two types of customers, the locations which need such a facility and the consumers who avail the facility. The products sold by a vending machine are already in everyday use by our customers and the vending machine is just an extremely convenient medium right within the customer’s reach, hence making it an item of need.  Offices need it for employee convenience, hospitals need it for patient’s convenience, malls need it for customer convenience, and college premises need it for student convenience. There are dorms, apartment complexes, public places as well as the sprawling factories located in industrial areas that require such facility. The list is endless.

Now about the response, we started with a couple of locations and gradually increased the number. We got a lot of consumer insights, user pattern and behaviour. Today, we are very glad to share that the response had been absolutely eager, which in fact proved that the demand for the vending machine already existed and was just waiting for the gap to be filled. Pakistanis are very adaptive to new concepts and technologies, which was amply proved to us during the initial phase of introducing the vending machines.

Q. What are the safety measures for the machine and the goods within, since the probability of theft is high here?
A. From a security point of view, we try to place machines within safe and enclosed environments at the moment. At some locations we have installed CCTV cameras to ensure that the usage is monitored. Up till now we haven’t really faced any major incident.

I think over time our people have also become sophisticated and learned to value better lifestyles and technological advancements. We witness this with ATM machines, smartphones, and other gadgets. It is not a novelty anymore. In our case, we have felt that people consider the vending machine as something which fulfils their needs and they do not try to damage it. In fact, people often assist us by informing us in case they find any problem or irregularity in the machine.

Q. How big is the vending machine market?
A. Globally, vending machine business is a $60 billion industry and growing. In Pakistan, it is just the beginning and the scope is immense. Considering consumer receptivity, adaptability, and availability of potential locations, I think the growth prospects are immense.

Q. In developed world vending machines do not just offer cold stuff but also cater hot and warm drinks, food and much more? Is this also an option in the Pakistani version?
A. Quite true as when you look at developed countries, vending machines dispense coffee, tea , juices, and then there are machines for warm food as well. Then there are vending machines for other consumer products ranging from OTC medicines, contraceptives, books, shoes, stationary, T-shirts, etc.

As for us, at the moment EasyVend offers snack and beverages, with the aim of letting the consumers adapt to the idea and get the concept ingrained. In the coming future, we certainly intend to introduce vending machines for other products. EasyVend is well poised to offer specialised solutions as per customer demand. As our customers are also maturing and looking at new ways that the vending machines can be utilised for in their work sphere, they are open to experimenting; and we are ready to build machines to suit their specific requirements and products.

The writer is a staff member