After a two-year hiatus filled with cancellations and virtual shows, ID TECH is happy to see in-person tradeshows have made a roaring comeback in 2022. With new team members, new products, and a new dedication to innovation, ID TECH has evolved since the start of the pandemic, and we were eager to show our customers and partners how far we’ve come.    

As a worldwide leading tradeshow association for the payment industry, the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) has a reach of over 30 countries and 500 payment-related companies. ID TECH has been a member of ETA for years and, with its considerable influence on the payment industry, we knew it was a show at which we wanted to have a strong presence.

A New ID TECH

In the months leading up to ETA, ID TECH worked hard to prepare a tradeshow booth that would show our partners and customers all the updates we had made since the beginning of the pandemic.  

We created a brand new booth and updated our branding to complement our product launch of the brand new NEO 3 platform of products.  

NEO 3 

Starting in the fall of 2022, ID TECH is releasing our NEO 3 platform of products. The NEO 3 products are a series of versatile, ruggedly designed products that can be seamlessly integrated into multiple industries and environments.  

“NEO 3 is a state-of-the-art payment platform,” explains George Jiang, Chief Technology Officer. “Many hardware manufacturers didn’t invest in their products over the past few years. But ID TECH has been working on providing value to our partners and customers through this innovative product line. Plus, they look cool!”  

Our sleekly designed NEO 3 products were displayed at ETA along with fully customized, operational demo units to show our products integrated in multiple unattended payments environments, and all ETA attendees were the first to get a sneak peek.  

ID TECH at ETA

Like previous exhibit years, ETA was large, loud, and a little overwhelming, which all contributed to the excitement the ID TECH team felt while attending the show. 

Our newer and older staff members bonded over drinking, eating, and experiencing ETA from beginning to end. Other exhibitors attracted attendees to the booths with gourmet coffee setups and novelties like customized air-brushed clothing. ETA itself offered a broad selection of food, snacks, and drinks for everyone. The ETA staff was amazingly accommodating and made sure to include some “play” along with other typical tradeshow activities such as seminars and networking events.  

“My favorite part of ETA was having face-to-face, real-time interactions with partners and customers,” says Ginger Wu, Senior Product Manager. “Experiencing and seeing their reactions and instant feedback to ID TECH’s newest solutions and services was priceless.” 

Overall, ETA was the perfect event for our company to allow attendees to interact with ID TECH’s newest payment technologies and meet some of the people who created them. 

The Future

ID TECH plans to continue growing our presence at ETA and other tradeshows. The feedback we got from staff and attendees was extremely positive and a big encouragement towards our forward momentum.   

As we evolve our company, products, and brand to match the changing landscapes of different customer needs and emerging technologies, we’re happy to see that the events we attend and the customers we meet are receptive to “The New ID TECH” that is forming.  

“ETA was my first tradeshow with ID TECH and I couldn’t have picked a better one to start with,” says Ryan Maulit, Marketing Manager. “Everything we experienced was so positive. It made me really proud to be a part of ID TECH.” 

Thank you to everyone we met at ETA, partners and customers alike, and thank you to our amazing staff members who came together and made ETA a momentous experience for ID TECH as a company. 

For more information about the other events ID TECH will be attending, click here.  

For more information on ID TECH’s NEO 3 platform of products, please visit our NEO 3 webpage.   

About ID TECH

ID TECH is a global leader in payment peripherals, with sales, manufacturing, and R&D facilities worldwide. The company has become a well-established payment solutions provider with extensive experience in data capturing and encryption products and services. Designing dependable, feature-rich products has made ID TECH a leading supplier of MagStripe readers/writers, mobile payment readers, contactless readers, smart card readers, barcode readers, POS keyboards, signature capture devices, PCI-compliant PIN pads, and other specialty products for OEMs, VARs, resellers, distributors, and key end-users. ID TECH provides both standard and custom solutions to support customer requirements.   

For more information, visit www.idtechproducts.com. 

 

As part of our latest blog series, we’re taking a look at loyalty solutions in various industries to see what companies are doing to enhance customer retention and user experience. It’s no surprise that large retailers and brands have long used loyalty programs to entice and reward their top customers. In recent years, retail companies are also beginning to adopt loyalty solutions for vending machines as the preferences of their customers evolve. Here are some popular loyalty solutions in the vending industry right now:

Vending Machine Apps

Unlike brick-and-mortar merchants or eCommerce retailers, unattended vending machines do not have the luxury of leveraging a sales staff to get customers to sign up for loyalty cards at checkout or online. As a result, many vending loyalty programs have been integrated into mobile apps to ensure that a tailored customer experience is still created. This provides a perk for customers, who can keep better track of their rewards and see them when they are most relevant. Loyalty program applications enable machine operators to reward their frequent customers, increase sales through additional purchases, and win new accounts.

Points for Using Mobile Wallet

Many vending companies are implementing a loyalty initiative where customers can receive points for using their mobile wallet. The idea is that consumers get points or credit for using their mobile wallet at various vending machines. Once a customer racks up enough points, they get a free vending machine product.

Prepaid Card Incentives

Offering a discount to customers with prepaid cards – such as employee ID cards or gym membership tags – can be an effective incentive to push patrons toward choosing their prepaid card as their preferred payment method. The motivation to purchase from the vending machine, as opposed to going to a nearby physical store,  also needs to be acknowledged with the price differences in addition to convenience. Many vending machines are starting to offer different prices for various payment methods, and then advertising the multiple prices for one item to highlight the discount.

Reward Customers with Membership

Another great way to extend relationships with customers through a loyalty program is the idea of introducing membership levels. The machine can recognize  frequent customers and reward them based on their membership type. From there, the customer can receive special discounts or free credit.

The ID TECH Solution

ID TECH’s commitment to providing innovative and quality solutions for your digital loyalty program comes through in our vending line of products. Our newest one is the VP6800, which uses NFC technology to support contactless payments as well as loyalty and rewards features. It is a sleek, single piece solution certified with the latest contactless brand specifications and mobile wallet technologies. By supporting all the major card brands, along with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, every transaction is covered no matter what you tap!

In addition to contactless reading, the VP6800 also supports EMV chip as well as MagStripe card reading. With a wide temperature range, the rugged VP6800  is ideal for all environments. To learn more about the VP6800, click here.

About ID TECH

ID TECH has established a solid reputation in the industry as a leading payment peripheral provider with magnetic stripe, EMV contact, and EMV contactless expertise. We are also an OEM payment solution provider with the capability and willingness to customize solutions to fit our customers’ needs. With a strong foundation and continued success rooted in card readers, ID TECH is currently expanding its reach in the ever-evolving payments industry.

To learn more about ID TECH, please visit our about page.

 

If you’re an on-the-go person and don’t like waiting in lines for snacks or drinks, or if you’re at work and need a mid-afternoon caffeine kick, chances are you visited a vending machine a time or two. They’re quick and convenient with no human interaction.

Besides the once in a while frustration of trying to shake your bag of pretzels loose from the last rung of the vendor when it gets stuck, the machine is probably pretty stress-free. But what about those times when the machine doesn’t give your change back, or worse yet, doesn’t take your crumpled bills?

Newer vending machines are being equipped with chip card reading technology, and its important to understand the changing technology.

1. You Don’t Need a Chip-Enabled Card to Use a Vending Machine…yet

Not quite yet, at least. Banks are still in the process of completing the switch from magnetic stripe to chip reader cards so vending machines are still equipped with a stripe to swipe your card, a slot for cash and coins and some have been updated to accept chip readers.

Dipping your card in vending machines works the same as it would at a checkout counter in a shop. The screen will prompt you to insert your card, it will communicate with your bank, authenticate your purchase and ask you to remove your card.

One thing to note is that there is no one working a vending machine to remind you that you have to dip. All cards that have chips right now also have the magnetic stripe, but that doesn’t mean you have the option. The magnetic stripe reader in the vending machine is for those who still haven’t been issued a card with a chip in it. So, if you try to swipe your card and it doesn’t let you move forward with the transaction, it’s probably because it knows your card has a chip and it’s waiting for you to dip it.

2. Security Doesn’t Take a Backseat Just Because it’s Unattended

The people who create payment terminals are not going to make vending machine payments any less secure than they would be at a payment terminal manned by an employee. Dipping your card in a vending machine is just as safe as dipping it in the attachment a cashier has on his or her tablet.

Inside the hardware where you insert your card, the process of encrypting your purchase begins. As with anything else, whichever snack or drink you bought has a data code that is unique to your card and your purchase. It will change every time you make a purchase in that vending machine — that’s what makes chip-reading technology so fraud-resistant.

Your transaction code gets sent to your bank, where it will transfer to the receiving bank, and your purchase will be complete. Vending machines typically won’t ask you for a PIN number or signature.

Keep in mind, chip transactions tend to take just a few seconds longer than the magnetic stripe transactions. This is because the payment information is transferring in real-time and the data must be encrypted. A few more seconds spent at the vending machine is worth it when it means your payment is secure and you don’t have to worry about fraud over something as simple as a two-dollar beverage or 75 cent bag of M&M’s.

3. Contactless Payments Might Be an Option

Because many companies are switching to payment methods such as Apple Pay, Google Pay or the like, vending machine card reader technology has to keep up as well.

Think of the last time you went to the mall and craved an ice-cold Coke. Although it used to be as easy as pulling a buck out of your pocket and waiting for the bottle to fall, now there are three ways to pay for such a drink: digital wallet, cash or credit card.

Nowadays, you never know who’s carrying what. Some people prefer cash. Some prefer to make larger payments on credit and smaller payments with cash. And some want nothing to do with either and have downloaded their credit card onto a digital wallet.

If you’re the type who prefers digital wallet, it might be hard to find a vending machine just yet that has frictionless payment options only. Instead, what some vending machine owners are doing is switching out the payment terminal and keeping the machine. This quick update means that cash and magnetic stripe technology is still accepted by the vending machine card reader, but people with chip readers can now use them too.

Now just because chip credit cards are also enabled with Near Field Communication (NFC) doesn’t mean this payment method works at all vending machines. Some vending machine card readers don’t have the technology necessary to complete a contactless payment. You’ll have to look for the symbol on the terminal. If you see a circle with radiofrequency lines and a hand with a card, this means the payment terminal will take a digital wallet payment.

4. Know Your Customer Base

Introducing cashless options might not be a bad thing when it comes to updating your vending machines. But is it worth the cost?

While many people still shy from using credit cards for small purchases, it’s still nice to offer the option if they forget to take cash out or forgot their wallet before they made the trek to the vending machine. In recent years, because credit card spending has become more mainstream due to the ease of use, it might even boost sales for your vending machine if you add the option. Customers are increasingly choosing options that take less time. They are also feeling much more comfortable making credit card transactions because EMV is taking such strides to keep personal information safe and encrypted.

If you have many different generations visiting your vending machine, chances are high they want to pay in many different ways. If your vending machines are located in offices where most people are used to them for example, and know they take cash only, it might not be worth the expense of refitting your machine with vending machine card readers. Alternatively, if your vending machine is located in an area full of young professionals that rarely carry cash, a retrofit may have excellent ROI.

Choose the Right Design

Updating your vending machine with new payment terminals means keeping with simple designs. You don’t want your customers to be intimidated by a vending machine card reader. It should be as straightforward as it can be. After all, vending machines are all about convenience.

When something looks easy to use, customers will also be more trusting of how secure the kiosk or vending machine is because it won’t be difficult for them to figure out such as where the card actually goes and whether or not they should leave it in or pull it out before the transaction is complete.

At ID TECH, we offer various options to keep your vending machines running efficiently and accepting payments securely.

Whether you choose to use a digital payment option or a chip card reader without NFC capabilities, we can help you choose the one that will keep your customers satisfied and your business running.

We have over 30 years of experience with payment terminals and we know how much a contactless or card reader machine can boost business nowadays. Reach out if you have more questions or want to look through some of our products. Read our other blogs about payment terminals to find out just how much is changing in the world of digital transactions.