Smart Vending Development
Smart IoT Vending Offers Unique Purchasing Experiences
Vending machines have been part of everyday life for years, but with the “internet of things” (iOT) accelerating innovation and transforming markets, intelligent vending systems are not the ordinary snack dispensers we grew up with.
Vending technology is evolving fast and these new machines are engaging shoppers like never before with features like touch-screen controls, video, audio and cashless payment.
Bluesparq developed a proof of concept and the first functioning prototype of a complete IoT drink machine, called Fresh Blends.
How ioT is transforming Smart Vending & Dispensing Machines
Smart or IoT Vending and Dispensing Machines are controlled by a computer and use cloud based management systems to communicate important real-time data about sales, inventory and service information. This information is critical to companies in order to make more informed purchasing decisions and better understand consumer behavior.
Advantages of Smart Vending Machines
Smart vending machines offer real opportunities to gain a competitive advantage. With IoT-enabled smart vending solutions you can reduce costs, increase revenue and improve customer service, and experience – all from a single centralized point of control.
Designed with custom cloud dashboards, important consumer data can also be stored and displayed to different stakeholders to help make more educated decisions about things like marketing and logistics.
What can be dispensed?
Anything and everything! The custom vending machines' design and functionality are similar to an automated robot. With advanced technology and custom configurations, smart vending machines can be designed and manufactured to fit a variety of industries, such as:
The Repscrubs ScrubPort was developed to provide clean disposable scrubs by an on site scrub vending machine.
Leading Smart Vending Machine Manufacturer
Providing All Capabilities Under One Roof
Custom Vending Machine Design Examples
Blue Sparq has built many popular Smart Vending and Dispensing machines. Some of those include:
Vending Machine Design
Custom Vending Machine Design Manufacturing
A custom project can be broken down into 4 stages:
Important Factors To Consider When Designing a Custom Vending Machine:
Companies come to Blue Sparq to either make their existing machine Smart or make a new, next generation Smart Vending or dispensing machine from scratch.
To make vending machines smart and ioT compatible we concentrate on the following areas:
Custom Control Electronics:
When upgrading an existing machine or building a Smart IoT vending and dispensing machine from scratch, a custom control circuit board is required. We design and manufacture custom vending and dispensing circuit boards that can be controlled by a display computer running our custom graphical user interfaces.
UI / UX: The graphical user interface should be fun, exciting and attention getting as well as easy to use. These customized interfaces can be designed per customer needs and specifications.
Inventory Management:
Restocking the machine should be quick and easy. This is a vital step in providing good inventory tracking information to the cloud. This information will be used by the route operators when planning when to visit the machines and what products are needed to refill them.
Sales Data:
Knowing what’s hot and what’s not is critical to maximizing revenue. Our machines communicate ALL of the sales information to the cloud. Reports can be generated to help understand how well machines are performing in the field.
Service Data:
Knowing the health of your machine is critical to keeping it online and keeping the product flowing. Our machines communicate all of their sensor data to the cloud. This information can be used to determine when it is time to do preventative maintenance. Alert emails or texts are sent when components are not working correctly or if the machine is suddenly offline.
Cloud Connectivity and IoT:
Such features are critical to provide constant and accurate data to stakeholders at all times.
Advantages of Partnering with Blue Sparq
Experience
With over 30 years of experience manufacturing a variety of custom smart vending machines, Blue Sparq has built a reputation of being the place to go for all-in-one custom vending solutions.
No Trial and Error:
When it comes to choosing a provider, you want to work with a reputable company who has built custom applications similar to yours in the past. Not trial and error.
Unique Centered:
This allows us to focus on what makes your product unique. Customers pay for what makes their Smart IoT Vending and Dispensing machine unique. The rest of their machine is built on years of solid hardware engineering and software development.
Capabilities:
All-In-One Solutions:
Blue sparq is one of the only manufacturers that can guide, design and manufacture your smart vending machine all under one roof. Many companies can either only design or manufacture them. We can do both!
In-House Manufacturing, Design, Engineering:
We can provide assistance to a business at any stage of production. We have in-house manufacturing services as well as a capable team of designers and engineers to completely customize IoT vending machines to customers' demands.
Fast Turnaround:
When you work with Blue Sparq, we don’t waste your time. Having everything in house allows faster turnaround times, lower costs and our years of experience eliminates guesswork.
Our Unique Smart Vending Machine Features:
Our smart ioT vending and dispensing machines come with a rich foundation of features and functionality.
Multiple Payment Systems:
We have a hardware payment system as well as a QR code payment system available for our machines. Most of our customers use both.
Hardware Payment System:
Our Hardware Payment System is configured so that only one cellular modem and data plan is required, reducing the number of antennas you need on top of your machine as well as consolidating your monthly data plan payment.
Our Global CAT1 modem has 2 antennas to give our machine’s an excellent, robust connection to the internet with enough speed and bandwidth to easily handle all of the machine’s connectivity needs, including the payment system. Our Global CAT1 modem can support Verizon, AT&T and Sprint – T-Mobile.
QR Code Payment System:
Our QR Code system allows your customers to pay with your cell phone. No app download is necessary! Our QR Code payment system supports All Credit Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo and PayPal. Our QR Code system is a low-cost way to accept cashless payments without paying for expensive credit card reader hardware.
Customer Activation/Onboarding:
Less-experienced providers of custom vending machines often overlook important post-sale details. As an experienced custom vending machine manufacturer focused on customer service, Blue Sparq understands that the process isn’t over after delivery.
Our machines are activated and new customers are onboarded through our Activation / Onboarding Portal. This portal allows you to easily activate your machines’ cellular connection and provide your customer with access to the machine’s information.
This Activation / Onboarding portal can be white labeled with your logo and color scheme.
Accessible Machine Health Information:
The cloud dashboard will come with all of the basic machine health and online / offline information.
Easy Security Updates
Our machines UI and Control Board Firmware is easily updated over the air, ethernet or by USB memory stick.
