Raising Prices in Your Vending Business

Raising prices has always been a major challenge to U.S vending operators. Customers always expect vending machines to be always a low cost alternative. This is reason why many people would rather buy a snack or a beverage from a vending machine rather than a retail store. The two competitors of vending, convenience stores and fast food restaurants have enjoyed hiking their prices while vending prices have trended flat. This has always been a challenge for vending operators everywhere, including Planet Antares vending operators.

Caught in a bind by suppliers who are charging more for items, Planet Antares vending operators often find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place when they come after the end consumer by increasing prices. If there is a need to increase your prices, you should do that, even if it will mean losing a few accounts.
A dual challenge
A strategically thinking vending operator will recover the accounts he looses on account of price increases. This is what you need to remember as you try to refashion yourself from a universal crowd pleaser barely making ends meet into a smart selector of drink and snack options who understands the art of regular, price hikes.
The challenge is twofold: 1) to demonstrate to the account manager that the need for a price hike is driven by your own rising costs, and 2) to show the raises are in the interest of assuring all customers of continued service excellence.
The challenge never ends
The challenge for many Planet Antares operators is to navigating between relentless penny price hikes inflicted by the bottlers and other suppliers and the touchy world of demanding more from the customers. Asking customers to pay for the products can be almost impossible in most situations.
If you are not making any profit from a certain account, then you will be better off without the account. You started a Planet Antares vending business to make money, so if there is an increase in your costs rise, it will mean that you can only continue to make profits by increasing your prices. When there is a need for price increases, you can send a sales/PR person to each account to explain when it will be effective. On that date, route people should post letters on the fronts of the vending machines, explaining the price hike as kindly but as firmly as possible. You will also need to explain the fact that in order to continue to provide good service, you must recover your own costs.

Profitable Snack and Beverage Vending Machines

With snack and beverage vending machines, you can be sure of having a successful vending business. This would of course be the case, so long as you use the right approach when it comes to running your vending business. Planet Antares Inc. provides quality snack and beverage vending machines that can bring in high profits for any vending business.

Location
When you start a vending business, you would of course want it to be profitable. For a vending business to be a success, there are a number of factors that have to come into play. First of all you need to buy the right kind of vending machine which would work well in a location that has high traffic. Planet Antares snack and beverage vending machines are ideal for this kind of location. When people are passing through a location and they spot a vending machine at corner, they will feel inclined to have a drink or a snack. Most people can’t make it through a day without having some kind of snack. That is the reason why some location owners even demand for snack and beverage vending machines in their locations. In other words, you don’t have to be the one to always go out looking for locations for your vending machines; it can also be the other way round. When you secure a location for your Planet Antares vending machine, make sure that you place the vending machine in visible position. The machine should be easily seen from any angle. If your vending machine cannot be seen by potential customers, you can end up losing ‘would be’ sales.

Products
Choosing the right kind of products for your vending machines is important. The perfect products can make your vending machines very profitable. The first thing that you would need to do is to get the right kind of supplier who will provide you with all the products that you would need. The products must be reasonably priced, so that you can earn a good profit and they should also have attractive packaging. Planet Antares vending machines have glass fronts, so the products need to be eye catching. The machines also have a high capacity, which means that they will be able to store a variety of snacks and beverages. Having variety in your vending machines would make your vending machines very profitable.

Brand snacks and beverages always do best in vending machines, because they are easily recognized. These are products that don’t need to be advertised. Healthy products in your vending machines can click well with the health conscious customers. This is something that you can do to increase your profits.

Vending Machine Safety

When choosing a vending machine, always keep safety as your top priority. There are accidents that have occurred to individuals while using a vending machine. These accidents have been the result of intentional misuse and abuse of the vending machine. This is usually done by tipping, shaking or rocking of the machine.

Possible steps need to be taken to avoid or reduce the number of such incidents taking place. As an owner of a Planet Antares vending machine, you will need to determine the safety of the location of the vending machine and you also have to check on the manner in which it has been installed. These are some of the factors that can lead to accidents in the vending area.

The Planet Antares vending program will provide you with guidelines on vending machines safety, which will help you, place their vending machines in the right location as well as in the right manner. As business owner you may not know much about which precautions you need to take when placing your vending machine. This is why you will need guidelines.

As the purchaser of a Planet Antares vending machine, you should immediately take steps to be sure that the risk of accidents caused by the machines put on location by you should not occur. Make sure that the location of the vending machine is well light and that the vending machine is securely anchored to the floor, wall or other stable fixed building component.

Accidents will never occur if the vending machine is located in a place where it is accessible when there are no attendants in close proximity, or if the facility is closed for other business. You will need to take precautions to ensure that the vending machine cannot be tipped over. Vending machines in such locations should be anchored to the floor, wall, and post or by attaching two or more machines together

To warn customers about the danger involved in tipping or rocking the vending machine, you can affix a decal on the vending machine, which will warn them about that. Keep in mind that is an accident occurs in a vending location that has your vending machine, the consumer can decide to hold you responsible. To ensure smooth running of your Planet Antares vending business, take all the precautions that are necessary.

Advantages of Electronic Locks

For as long as vending machines have existed, burglars have always been looking for ways to get into them. This has been a big problem for vending operators, because theft from the vending machine means losing cash or product. This would be a loss for you. Today there are a variety of electronic vending locks available to protect all types of vending machines. These locks offer several advantages as compared to conventional lock key methods. Protecting your Planet Antares vending machine from theft, should be at the top of your list. Below are some advantages of electronic locks.

1. Hard to pick: These locks can only be opened with an electronic key. Some systems designed for candy snack vending machines and soft drink vending machines, use non- contact infrared key fobs. This eliminates a visible lock on the front of the vending machines, which will deter thieves. This would be great for Planet Antares vending machines.
2. Difficult to drill: Hardened steel roll pins can be incorporated into soft drink machine t-handle locks to prevent drill bits from coming into contact with the actual lock.
3. Keys can’t be duplicated: The software that is used is encrypted so only the vending operator will have access to key codes. This means no one else will have access to your Planet Antares vending machine.
4. Vending operator has full control of keys: Only the vending operator will have full control over when the key is active or how many times the key has to be in use.
5. No need to change locks if key is lost: This is because electronic vending machine keys are inactivated regularly and the operator can quickly change key codes. The security of your vending machine will never be compromised.

Replacing conventional vending machine locks with new electronic vending machine locks does not take more time than regular lock changes. Some styles of electronic replace the barrel plug locks, leaving the main locking components in place. Electronic locks will offer tighter seals in your Planet Antares vending machine than conventional locks. This would result in a decrease in cold air leakage in your vending machine. The compressor life of your vending machine will be extended as well, which would lower energy costs.

Reinforcing weak components of the machine will increase the security of the vending machine. Take all precautions that are necessary to ensure that you don’t suffer any loss in your vending business as a result of theft. You can start by placing electronic locks in your vending machines.

Internal Linking for Your Online Shopping Website

Internal Linking plays a pivotal role in perking up the worth and utility of your online shopping website. Internal Linking can give a real thrust to your online store by making it more effective and user friendly

Here is a list of some points that show the importance of Internal Linking for your online shopping website.

Interlinks the Web pages of your online shopping website

Internal Linking efficaciously interlinks the different web pages within your online shopping website. Thus, your online shopping website looks well knit, and your customers find it appealing.


Better Navigation

Internal linking faciliates better navigation of your online shopping website. When the different web pages within your online shopping website are inerlinked, your customers find it easy to navigate. Thus, they can easily and quickly find their desired products and services.

Better Indexing of the Website

Internal Linking ensures that your online shopping website is properly indexed by serach engines. This is what all the online merchants vie for.

Boosts the Page Rank of Internal Pages

Internal linking brings all the pages of your online shopping website close to one another. Thus, every page of your online shopping website is given a higher Page Rank. This means that all the items on the different web pages of your online shopping website can be easily noticed by the online shoppers.

Finding Locations

The success of your vending business depends primarily on the location of your vending machine. Below are some tips that will help you make wise choices in vending machine locating and the placement of your vending equipment.

1. Common sense.
If a location doesn’t feel right or look right to you, don’t go for it, it is as simple as that. When you are scouting for locations, you already have an idea of what you are looking for, so if you don’t find it, don’t settle for second best. Companies such as Planet Antares Inc. will provide you with quality vending machines as well as all the vending information that can help you start your business. If you use a locator to find a location, make sure that you ask any questions that you will have about the location.

2. The location.
Go out on your own to study some of the locations in your local area. Find out which machines are popular and which locations work best for which location. To get all this information, you just need to sit and watch people. A Planet Antares vending machine sells snack and beverages, so in this case you would need to look for locations with high foot traffic. These are places that will always have demands for such products. If you spot a location with no vending machines, don’t be quick to place your vending machines there, because there are high chances that the vending machines don’t do well in that location and that could be why no one else has used the location.

3. Bulk vending machines.
These are machines that should not be placed in all types of locations. Not all locations work very well for bulk vending machines. These machines can have items such as gumballs, candy and so on. Place these machines near places such as cash registers, exits and entrances. Cash registers work well because when a parent has change after paying for a purchase, they can easily use the change to buy for their kid who might be demanding for some candy.

4. Snack, Soda, and combination vending.
Planet Antares vending machines offer these kind of items. These machines require completely different types of locations from bulk machines because they are larger in size and they offer totally different products. These types of machines do well in businesses which have at least 50 employees. The bigger the machine, the more employees needed. Locations such as factories and other blue collar locations also work well for such locations. These machines should also be placed in high foot traffic locations as well.

5. Locators.
If you are using a locator to look for a location, make a point of asking all the necessary questions. Give the locator an idea of where you want the locations to be. When the locator goes out scouting for the location, accompany the locator so that you can learn how to secure the location by yourself. Don’t let the locator push you around, you have the right to say yes or no to the locations presented.