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Vianet have recently partnered with leading forecourt retail specialist Suresite Group in strategic move to drive innovation in the unattended contactless payment space.
The rise in popularity of unattended card transactions across a variety of settings is expected to surge, as consumer confidence and adoption of contactless payments continues to climb: Juniper Research’s latest Contactless Payments research predicts contactless transactions will grow 130% globally in the next five years, taking the market size from its current $4.7tn to $11tn in 2027. For merchants in the unattended space, this brings to the table an attractive prospect of ‘more-sales-less-cost’ and highly compliant payment options.
The partnership sees Suresite Group’s market-leading acquiring services join forces with Vianet’s contactless payment solution hardware. The result is a competitive, user-friendly and highly secure payments solution able to futureproof any unattended or automated retail business, from charging points and unmanned car washes to air and vac stations.
Crucially for the forecourt retail specialist, the new solution will allow Suresite Group to not only offer its existing customer base even more payment options with the ability to accept payment via contactless devices at any unattended site, but also penetrate new sectors such as vending.
Nick Horne, sales and commercial director at Suresite, explains the strategy behind the move: “As the fuel industry evolves and fuel prices continue to soar, we’re seeing a resurgence in consumer demand for electric vehicles and with it a slow but sure shift from fuel to electric. Typically, dispensing electricity is lower risk than petrol or diesel, making it ideal for unattended contactless payment.
“Our strategy at Suresite is to continually innovate, introducing more and more hardware options to our customer base. The partnership with Vianet will allow us to grow our presence outside of the fuel industry, yet leverage those existing customer relationships in the forecourt sector – which alongside charging points, also opens up opportunities with unmanned car washes, jet washes and air and vac stations.”
Alongside existing opportunities in the forecourt sector, the partnership will also open the door for expansion into new sectors for Suresite, who have already signed vending contracts with facilities management companies, as well as contracts with car wash companies.
“At Vianet, as well as vending machines and car washes, we’re seeing more demand for unattended contactless payments being applied to the likes of pool tables, ticket machines, arcade games, jukeboxes, photobooths, laundromats, golf ball dispensing in driving ranges and much more,” says Craig Brocklehurst, Chief Operating Officer at Vianet.
“Enabled through the Internet of Things (IoT), our innovative payment solutions offer many benefits for both the merchant and end user. The usability of the device – which is easy to interact with, hygienic, and convenient – is the main benefit from a cardholder’s perspective. From the merchant perspective, contactless payment solutions in general enable operators to maximise sales and reduce costs, but our hardware specifically is PCI level 1 compliant, making it highly secure, transaction fees are competitive, and it also has the capabilities to advertise other services on it. Unique to the market, if the merchant has coffee and donuts available in store, for example, they can advertise this to their car wash customers whilst they’re sitting in their car, either on the device itself or from a wireless 4K stream to a local TV.”
James Dickson, Chairman & CEO of Vianet commented: “We are delighted to partner with Suresite in this innovative collaboration proving, once again, Vianet’s ability not only to drive new technological initiatives but also to establish new markets for our products.”
FUTUREPROOF YOUR UNATTENDED BUSINESS WITH VIANET’S ‘SMARTCONTACT PRO’
Vianet’s new all-in-one contactless payment solution ‘SmartContact Pro’ has integrated telemetry, a touch screen display and multiple network capabilities, making it the
perfect solution to futureproof any unattended or automated retail businesses. From car washes to laundromats, or vending to leisure assets, we’ve got you covered.
Vianet are seeing more demand for contactless payment being applied to the likes of pool tables, ticket machines, vending machines, arcade games, jukeboxes, photobooths, laundromats, golf ball dispensing in driving ranges and much more.
With low transaction fees from 1.2% and the ability to get cash in the bank from 24 hours, Vianet’s payment solutions certainly offers the wider unattended retail industry a competitive solution to maximise their profits and operational efficiencies.
The new ‘SmartContact Pro’ is compatible with many different machine protocols and markets including automated retail, forecourts, leisure, and hospitality assets; hence the possibilities are plentiful with where you can install this device. As an all-in-one solution, the integrated telemetry also offers businesses a solution to access their machine data and insights remotely, allowing them to manage machine estates anywhere, anytime. It is hassle free with the option for seamless API integration into third party platforms.
The contactless payment terminal can either work as a standard contactless payment device with a simple ‘Press GO to start ’ button or the option to have a configurable selection window display. If you have a machine that doesn’t have its own interface to do this, this is a great option to instruct your machine on what option has been selected. It offers the possibility to add multiple lines and pages of programmes, products, or services to select from.
Furthermore, multimedia capabilities are included with this device. With the ability to upload content, it can play multimedia such as videos, images, or adverts through a HDMI port to external displays, screens, or monitors. Playing adverts or additional information for engaged or passing customers is a great feature for any business looking to perhaps utilise for advertising space, as an additional revenue stream.
Vianet’s Solution Development team are also working hard in the background on different features and functionality to enhance this contactless payment device. The latest development on the ‘SmartContact Pro’ is a receipt functionality. After a transaction has been processed on the ‘SmartContact Pro’, it is able to display QR code receipts on the terminal, allowing customers to scan to their phone as a proof of purchase.
Winning the ‘Best Payment System’ for our ‘SmartContact Pro’ at ‘The Vendies 2022’ Vending Industry Awards in the UK, Vianet have excelled themselves with this one, making it one of the most progressive, attractive, and cost-effective payment solutions on the market today.
If you’d like to find out more, you can get in touch with one of our team for a chat and a demo via the contact page.
Pictured above from the left: Presenting the Best Payment System award, Phil Reynolds, Managing Director of Vendex; accepting their award, Vianet’s Matt Thornton, Client Director; Rachel Little, Marketing Manager; Mark Parry, Commercial Director; and on the right, The Vendies 2022 host, comedian Ian Moore.
On Thursday, 9th June 2022, Vianet travelled down to the capital to attend The Vendies 2022. This year’s Vending Industry Awards, hosted by Vending International, were held in the Grand Connaught Rooms in Holborn, Central London, and welcomed a wealth of suppliers and operators from across the UK’s vending industry.
Vianet was crowned the winner of two awards; ‘Best Payment System’, and ‘Best Supplier Website’. The Company was also ‘Highly Commended’ for the ‘Corporate Responsibility’ award, alongside the category winner, Mondelēz International.
The ‘Best Payment System’ award is a major achievement for Vianet, as contactless payment reached new highs of demand throughout the pandemic and the Company’s brand new contactless payment and telemetry solution, ‘SmartContact Pro’, was introduced to the unattended retail market to meet demand.
Vianet’s contactless payment, telemetry, and data services work in synchronicity to provide invaluable insight for the industry looking to utilise cashless payment data. Vianet offers the only truly end-to-end solution on the market, having already helped many vending businesses adopt cashless technology and data capture across their estate to make informed decisions.
Winning ‘Best Supplier Website’ is an excellent accolade for Vianet, following the launch of its new and improved website in November 2021. Changes were introduced to the website to improve the users understanding of Vianet’s products and services, improve the user journey, and introduce a streamlined login area for accessing service dashboards remotely.
Vianet was shortlisted in seven award categories, which were decided by a judging process in the spring. Each award entry was reviewed by an independent panel of industry experts, comprising leading names from across the sector. The judging panel assessed the entries in accordance with a strict set of criteria to determine a shortlist in each category.
The shortlists went to an online vote, where professionals from the vending sector were invited to make their voices heard by casting a vote for the products, operators, and individuals that they believed would be worthy winners. Each stage of the vote held a 50% weighting in the final decision.
Mark Parry, Vianet’s Commercial Director, attended the awards, stating, “We had a fantastic day in London for The Vendies, and I’m extremely proud of the Smart Machines division and our support functions who have contributed to this success. Already in 2022 we have had some great achievements, launching new features into SmartVend and expanding our reach in the payments market. These awards are testament to this and the hard work of our team.”
Huge congratulations to the other award winners at the event. There is incredible talent within the vending industry at present and it is fantastic to see this recognised. To find out more about the winners of The Vendies 2022, please click here.
Pictured: The Vianet team alongside other ‘The Vendies 2022’ award winners at the Grand Connaught Rooms, London.