THE SITUATION
It’s a common misconception that as an independent vending operator you must run your operation as lean as possible. There are those who believe that the cost of technology platforms only make sense for large-scale operators. The reality is, the right technology offers countless opportunities to maximize efficiencies and improve productivity.
Like many successful businesses, Empire Vending was born in a garage outside Houston, Texas. Jonathan Abernathy, Founder and Director of Operations, launched Empire with just one route, in 2012. He knew that better data was necessary to run a more efficient and profitable business and refused to believe that Empire would not benefit and grow from going cashless or implementing a logistics software solution. Today, Empire Vending has grown to a total of five routes, has installed cashless devices across all vending machines in their operation, and has expanded into micro markets, with plans to add more. Their decision to implement technology into the business has enabled them to grow faster and operate like an industry-lead-ing national vendor.
THE CHALLENGES
To better service customers and create greater efficiencies, Empire Vending searched for a best in class technology platform that would address its top pain points.
Manual Processes
For a vending operator, it’s critical to have systems in place that track inventory, warehouse operations and cashflow, as well as provide data analytics. When Empire Vending launched its operation, they managed the business almost entirely with pen and paper. They had also invested in large box trucks that were expensive to maintain and keep on the road, but necessary to transport mass amounts of product.
At the warehouse, drivers lacked information to enable pre-kitting, so would stock the trucks with all the merchandise they could handle. Empire used static scheduling to service their machines as well as manage their routes, with absolutely no data or insight into what product the machines actually needed. Additionally, the drivers were also responsible for cash collections and reporting revenue. Empire recognized that it did not know how much of the inventory was being loaded into the trucks or at each destination — or whether it had true cash accountability across the operation.
Meeting Changing Consumer Needs
In order to meet customer demands, vending operators must provide the consumer with flexible payment options. From the beginning, Empire knew there was considerable need to implement cashless payment options across its machines. It could be too costly to pay the fees associated with accepting credit cards, however, it saw the application of credit card readers as an opportunity for growth. Empire also recognized that elevating the customer experience went beyond offering flexible payments, and that there was value in having insights into the customers’ buying habits.
THE SOLUTION
Empire Vending chose Cantaloupe’s Seed™ Pro platform as its solution to help implement cashless payments across all its vending machines. The feature-rich Seed logistics platform allows the Empire team to consolidate management of its operation: tracking and managing inventory, route scheduling, machine merchandising and overall revenue. In cooperation with Cantaloupe’s dedicated Customer Success Manager, the team at Empire was able to onboard all of their machines into Seed, aggregate the data in one place, and create organizational efficiencies that would not have been possible with its previous “pen and paper” manual processes.
THE RESULTS
“We required a proven solution that would give us deep visibility into our business processes. Cantaloupe’s Seed platform delivers a comprehensive IT automation solution that is well suited to the needs of Empire Vending and has allowed us to scale the business efficiently, as we continue to grow.”
Jonathan Abernathy, Founder and Director of Operations
