A fantastic method to grow your vending machine business is to use events to increase vending machine sales. That is precisely what we did to increase sales in our vending showroom (Betty’s Farm) this Easter Sunday.
Last year we took over Betty’s Farm, located in Willington, Derby, to house 24,000 hens and increase the egg production side of the family business. It was also an excellent opportunity to enhance our vending business as well. We could have a technician in the centre of England to handle installs and emergency service work. We could also use our vending technology to sell the eggs produced on our farm to the local community. We created a shop for the locals and a showroom to showcase our vending technology to potential buyers.
This Easter, utilising the association easter has with eggs, we decided to host an easter event to increase our shop sales. We set up and organised an ‘Easter Sunday Family Fun Day’. On our easter fun day, there was a bouncy castle, easter egg hunt, face painting and soft play areas that appealed to families looking for something the kids would enjoy this easter Sunday. We advertised the event on our Betty’s Farm Facebook page and posted the event on other Derbyshire-based events pages around a week before the event.
The event was a success, with over 400 people turning up. This increased volume of traffic resulted in increased sales through our vending machine, as families who turned up left with some eggs and purchased other goods we sell in our vending machines. An increase in sales is not the only benefit of our easter event. It allowed us to meet and strengthen our relations with our regular customers (key customers when sustaining a vending business). It attracted many new customers as attendees told us they knew we were there, but did not know what we offered, and this was the first time they had come in to shop. It also allowed us to reach new people on social platforms, as attendees shared pictures and videos of their families at the event, tagging our social page in their social media posts.
It’s not just us that use events to boost our vending machine sales. Several of our customers who have purchased our vending technology to create vending farm shops have hosted events before. Upperdysart Larder has hosted several Pop-Up days for local businesses to sell their goods and bring the community to their vending machine. Bennetts Farm Shop hosted an open day to attract and meet many community members and turn them into regular customers. Thorney Bank Farm Shop hosts event days based around the different holiday seasons to bring masses of people to their farm and shop for their vending machine. If you own a vending machine or are considering investing in a vending machine but are worried about attracting customers, hosting events that appeal to your local community to a sure way to get people on your site and shopping from your vending machine.