Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., the world’s third largest soft drink company, has selected USA Technologies’ to implement its e-Port credit card payment services in vending machines throughout the U.S. The Dr Pepper Company will offer USA Technologies’ e-Port service to all bottlers that produce and/or distribute Dr Pepper and 7 Up products. This includes Dr Pepper bottlers as well as Coca-Cola and Pepsi bottlers that distribute Dr Pepper and 7 Up products.
Working with a Pepsi bottler that distributes Dr Pepper, Pepsi Cola of Central Virginia, credit card accepting venders were placed in numerous high- profile locations. The e-Port(TM) credit card payment systems were successfully tested for market acceptance and sales lift.
“We are committed to customer satisfaction and supporting our bottlers to increase sales,” commented Sid Stevens, vice president-business development in the Dr Pepper marketing group. “The e-Port(TM) helps us toward both of these goals. Our consumers love the convenience of the credit card option and our bottlers will benefit from increased revenue.”
The e-Port(TM) service was officially launched by Dr Pepper/Seven Up at the annual Dr Pepper bottler meeting, Oct. 3-5, 2002, in San Francisco. For pictures of credit card vending at the Dr Pepper Bottler convention visit [1]
“The endorsement of a world class brand like Dr Pepper is a true testament to our service,” commented Michael Lawlor, senior vice President of business development. He went on to say, “More and more soft drink bottlers are recognizing that they can increase vending sales and have the system pay for itself in less then 12 months.”
USA Technologies’ networking services offer consumers a variety of options when purchasing products from vending machines, from a credit card, debit card, and smart card, to employee identification numbers (ID), and hotel room key cards. USA Technologies provides the added benefit of specializing in transactions of $1.00 or more, which delivers more cost-effective cashless payment options for bottler and vending operators.
The addition of the cashless vending payment system by Dr Pepper/Seven Up is expected to favorably impact the vending business by giving consumers more purchasing options, and at the same time, making the vending business for bottlers more profitable. Historical data from hundreds of vending machines across the country using e-Port(TM) has already shown that the added consumer convenience of vending with the swipe of a credit or debit card has increased vending machine sales revenue by 15-20 percent, according to USA Technologies.
As part of the e-Port(TM) program, the on-going networked financial and data services provided by USA Technologies will be hosted by IBM. Under a new agreement, IBM will be hosting the network that runs the financial and data services portion of the e-Port(TM) solution. This allows customers like Dr Pepper/Seven Up and its bottlers to have the premier global IT company running their vending network and will provide them the ability to connect vending machines around the world.
The vending industry has seen a significant growth in cashless transactions over the past two years, with announcements from major beverage and consumer product companies and vending machine manufacturers, which are incorporating credit cards payment systems as a necessary consumer payment option. A CBS Market Watch report announced that the major bottling companies plan to add credit card payment systems to their vast network of vending machines.
About USA Technologies:
USA Technologies is the leader in wireless non-cash and m-commerce transactions, associated financial/network services and interactive media technology. USA Technologies provides networked credit card and other non- cash/mobile commerce systems in the vending, commercial laundry, hospitality and digital imaging industries. USA Technologies is an IBM Business Partner and an inaugural member of the Sprint Enabling Application Service Provider Program for e-commerce. The Company has marketing agreements with the IBM Corporation and Mars Electronics International. Maytag Corporation is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner and minority investor in USA Technologies. .
[1]: http://www.usatech.com/news/dp_meeting_photos.html
