Mo Razzaq explains how he tripled his vending machine sales by fine-tuning his product offer.
Aware that a growing number of customers would like to buy food, drink and household items outside of his shop’s opening hours, Mo Razzaq was keen to adapt in order to grow sales and meet shoppers’ needs.
In an ideal world, he would have extended the opening hours of Mo’s Premier Blantyre to 24/7, but the cost of energy was prohibitive, so he then had the idea of installing two external vending machines.
Mo installed the machines alongside his self-service laundry machines and parcel lockers at the beginning of August.
The vending machines are on a six-month trial, but they would cost £23,000 to purchase.
A shopper survey revealed that snacking was high on the agenda, so Mo filled one machine with confectionery and soft drinks lines, including Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Monster energy drinks, and the other machine with sandwiches, milk, bread and food-to-go lines.
Prices were kept the same as in-store and sales got off to a positive start of £400 a week after a soft launch.
As time went on, Mo continued to analyse the offer and see where improvements could be made. “We’ve taken energy drinks out because there wasn’t an age restriction process and we don’t want under-16s purchasing them,” he says. “So, we put glucose-based drinks in instead.”
He then added a range of condoms, tampons, towels, wipes and pregnancy test kits. “We were thinking of emergencies and also that people, especially young men, were embarrassed to come in the shop to buy condoms. They are now buying them from the machine, so that was a good move.”
He also made the decision to introduce sanitary products at cost price, both in-store and in the machines. “We have monthly meetings where we speak to community groups and customers, and they told us about period poverty. Also, we run a foodbank for Hamilton Church’s drop-in centre – they told us women were stealing due to period poverty. We put baby wipes in the machine as well – as that’s a household item that people in a pinch struggled with.”
His savoury snacks, such a pies, sausage rolls, Rustlers Burgers and sandwiches have performed well. “If people are going to work, they can pick it up from a petrol station, but they’ll pay a premium for it because Rustlers Burgers at a petrol station aren’t price marked, so they’re paying a higher price for them. We don’t put a surcharge on them, they’re the same as they are in the shop.”
Another distress purchase people tell Mo they have used his machines for is if they are visiting someone who has been rushed to hospital. “Hospital vending machines are quite limited… so they stop and pick up their drinks and snacks here because they know they’re going to be there a while.”
Mo’s other core shoppers are gamers. “They’re up half the night and sleep in the day – they’re like Dracula!” he jokes. “They’re a lot happier because they’re having a chance to use the machine for snacks and drinks, and we’ve got a pretty healthy balance of goods.”
Six weeks into the trial and sales have topped £1,200 a week. “This is the tip of the iceberg,” says Mo. “We’ve not advertised it or anything. We kept it low key.”
He is planning to add a shelter to the units and will continue to monitor their performance but if early results are anything to go by, Mo believes that vending machines may well become a common sight outside convenience stores in the future.
