Monday, January 28, 2008

Adjusting To The Changing Vending Market

The changes in vending business have aroused a new wave of interest and opportunities for the players. Most of the Planet Antares operators agree that there is need for better inventory control and accountability measures. Previously, it was possible to offset pilferage and operating inefficiencies with gross profit.

Savings can be made through category management in which the number of stock keeping units (SKU) inventory is reduced. This will result in higher sales due to frequent product rotations and better choices of production systems.

Line item accounting can increase the ability of vending operators to manage product selections efficiently. This is a great opportunity for Antares vending operators to take advantage of and enhance business profitability through cost control.

It may require considerable amount of time and money to be invested in your Antares vending business to enable changes in technology and mechanisms in an appropriate manner. Teaching drivers to use handheld computers will be a good idea that will pay off in the long run. Even the product selection process becomes efficient after implementing such technology.

After setting up the systems, there is need for someone to manage the operating systems that support a category management program. This task will not require too many inputs and involves some ongoing tasks to maintain it. Appoint a manager to analyze the data regularly and decide the product selections. Also, the support work will depend on the planograms. These are commonly organized according to the machine configuration and/or types of locations.

Make sure that you keep track of the frequency and amount of changes in planograms to determine the level of support work required. There are different types of vending machine products – core and cycle. While the core products remain the same, cycle products keep changing according to customer demand and Market variations. Mostly, planograms are on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Don’t forget to undertake another support task that involves input of data in the system and combining it with outside data. In certain cases, databases provided by the product suppliers are also found helpful for Planet Antares vending operators. There are others who depend on internal data alone, unlike the operators who receive regular updates from computer software providers.

Still, many vending operators continue to choose product selection according to sales and not profitability. There are some systems that can offer estimates of profit on individual products but have yet to be adopted on a wide scale and gain popularity. This challenge remains to be overcome for many vending companies.

Most operators choose products based on sales, not profitability. Even though there are some systems that provide profit information on individual products, this aspect of the system has been more challenging.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Vending Machine Front Customization

Today, the vending industry is full of diverse players and participants such as vending machine manufacturers, distributors, operators and customers. With technological improvements and innovations, there has been a rapid increase in competition and this has led to the need for enhanced promotional strategies.

New options have become available with the improvement in printing techniques. Now, vending operators can dress up their machine fronts for attracting more and more customers and generating more sales revenue. These options are available for the entire vending area, not just a single location.

When you decide the front design of the vending machines, first observe its present state and try to analyze whether it is presentable or interesting enough to arouse customer interest. If it isn’t, you must take adequate measures to make it inviting and colorful.

People want to get a break from work or school classes when they use a vending machine. It is a source of refreshment and hunger-fix for them. If the vending machines placed in the break room or campus corridors fail to encourage them to obtain the products inside, your vending business will not be able to earn substantial returns. Not just revenue, but also character of your Antares vending machines is enhanced by adding customized designs to the front.

Employee break rooms are not dinghy, mundane places anymore. Design specialists are using new graphic designs to enhance the aesthetic appeal of such areas and increase customer usage of vending machines. As a vending machine operator, you need to be in touch with the latest trends. So, the services of such professionals can be used to improve business efficiency and vending machine attractiveness.

The design movement is gaining momentum as more and more vending operators realize and implement designs in their vending machine fronts along with the environment or location where it is situated. By using customized signs, machine parts and door fronts, Planet Antares vending operators can offer a unique experience to the customer. Moreover, you can change the image of your products from a commodity to a premium product that is superior to its competitors.

In the near future, aesthetics and machine part customization will only gain more popularity. The new graphic design technologies result in evolution and launch of more products in the market. As competition grows, so will the level of sophistication and innovation in designs.