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You’ve seen it on the news, heard it on the radio and most likely spotted it on social media – the old £1 coin’s days are numbered and everyone is talking about it.

Amidst the chaos of retailers fighting for customer favour by publically defying The Royal Mint’s deadline, and consumers rushing to smash piggy banks across the country, one thing is clear – contactless is the future.

No industry is going to be impacted more by this latest currency switch than vending. Operators will need to fork out between £90 and £130 per machine to implement the new mechanisms, that’s not to mention the additional service costs, the investment to introduce the mechanism earlier in the year, and the future cost of changes in currency – the list goes on.

But what about people’s love for cash? The enjoyment of having cold hard currency, something tangible to show for their hard work. It’s actually an open and shut case. As proved with movies and music, that have seen DVD’s replaced with Netflix and CDs with iTunes, society has embraced digital ownership of possessions, cash is no different.

How does this relate to vending? The statistics from our estate reveal that where vending machines have been made contactless enabled, there has been an increase in sales of 146%. People are in fact spending more than they would have done if the machine had a coin mechanism.

It’s clear to see that cash is no longer king and a wider consumer mega trend of digital ownership and how we view possessions is impacting the nation. In light of all this evidence, surely now is the time to switch to contactless?