The Way To Go with Vending Machine Plan-o-gram

Product Merchandising

Nice to see a vending machine fully stocked at all times similarly to gondolas in any convenience store. And, we’ll agree, nearly empty machines are eye soar to the shopper. However, is it not better to see vending machines fully stocked but filled with varieties of products to choose from? And better, vending machines fully stocked and merchandised according to the needs, expectation and impulse of the customers? Thus, a plan-o-gram should surely help in the merchandising management in the eyes of the vending operator.

Product merchandising is a skill any vending operator must have, and more so of a discipline, if you want better results on sales and business profitability. The ultimate tool for product merchandising is the plan-o-gram. Basically, a plan-o-gram, is the planning of products to be merchandised, and the principle behind merchandising is product selection, product arrangement and competitive pricing.

Look into one of my plan-o-gram in a vending machine of a senior living facility in Lewisville in North Texas. The machine is located in the break room of the facility’s employees. Thus, you will see, employees would primarily look for affordable products that will sustain their energy while at work. In full line vending machines, the two departments are snacks and cold drinks. The product mix of the snack department consists primarily of chips and cracklings, cookies and biscuits, chocolates, gums and nuts; and the cold drinks consists primarily of soft drinks, energy drinks, juices and bottled water.

The Vending Machine Plan-o-gram

Vending Machine Plan-o-gram in DFW Dallas Fort Worth Denton
Plan-o-gram of a Full Line Seaga Infinity Vending Machine

We should always emphasize the merchandising capacity of vending machines are limiting when compared to micro-markets and convenience stores. However, vending machines are good sources of snacks and drinks catering to the impulse need of an identified small group of customers, say a break room of about 20 employees. Unless, the vending machine operator invest in more vending machines which will impede the mere purpose of serving a small group of employees in a confined facility, the space needed in cases of small break rooms, power consumption and, lest the profitability of the vending operator.

Since we are starting to use Cantaloupe’s latest Seed Cashless+payment system, we’d like to share our latest plan-o-gram worksheet.

Way to Go on Vending Machine Plan-o-gram

Plan-o-gram is the planning of products merchandised, and the principle behind merchandising is product selection, product arrangement and competitive pricing. Eventually, the ultimate goals of the plan-o-grams are to plan for product purchasing, financial budgeting, product distribution and vending machine merchandising keeping in mind our customer’s satisfaction all the time 24/7!

We have similar and helpful topics on traffic analysis, drop-in evaluation and profit and loss based on the outcomes at DEAJ Oil and Gas Downstream Marketing Retail website at http://deajoilgas.com. Enjoy reading!

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