Micro Markets Poised to Grow in 2022

Micro markets are among the most popular innovations in the retail and vending space. These markets experienced sustained group all across Europe during the past few years and have also made a spectacular rebound once the pandemic slowed. Micro markets are essentially self-service stores installed in the workplace and they are poised to grow tremendously in 2022 and beyond.

In this piece, we will discuss some factors that indicate why these markets could grow over the next few years and their potential for the future. Before we proceed, let us briefly discuss what micro markets are:

What are Micro Markets?

A micro market is a relatively new self-checkout and self-service retail solution. Currently, they are commonly present in closed environments such as universities or office spaces.

Top Reasons why Micro Markets Could Grow Exponentially in 2022

Here are a list of reasons that prove that 2022 is the year for micro markets and why they are here to stay for a long time.

They are Easy to Access

Micro markets are like grocery stores that are open 24/7. They are unattended and have easy payment options. They offer customers round the clock convenience, ensuring they can access healthy eating options whenever they please.

Micro Markets Offer Plenty of Options

Regular vending machines only contain a select few products, often around forty. On the other hand, micro markets offer customers a significantly higher amount of options (around 400). This also gives operators the chance to gain more revenue compared to conventional vending machines.

Excellent Customer Interaction

Micro markets are vastly different from vending machines. For instance, the latter are just sealed boxes containing products that are often out of reach. With micro markets, customers can choose products easily and even read their nutrition related info before paying. That way, the customer interaction and experience offered by micro markets is vastly superior to vending machines and makes them the go-to option for many offices, universities, hospitals, airports and other closed environments.

Minimum Social Interaction

The use of self-service technologies means that there is minimum social interaction in micro markets. This is especially ideal for the post-pandemic times we live in, offering customers more reassurance.

Tracking the Micro Market Industry’s Growth

While the vending sector only has around 5% micro markets so far, this segment is growing quite quickly in 2022. Micro markets experienced a growth of around 40% during the last few years, while the use of traditional vending machines dropped massively. All of this suggests that the micro market is growing rapidly in the vending landscape.

Why the Micro Market Industry is Growing So Quickly

• Micro markets are ideal for offering people healthy eating alternatives like hand-prepared meals and healthy and fresh snacks. Storing these items in regular vending machines is usually not practical, especially for customers who want to read nutritional information.
  
  
• The lockdowns during the pandemic resulted in a massive change in how the vending industry operated. That said, the attended cafeteria section took a bigger hit. Since social distancing and hygiene needs meant fewer staff members were allowed on site, micro markets proved to be a viable alternative.
  
  
• One of the best things about micro markets is that they offer the option of cashless payments through closed loop systems, QR codes or mobile payments. All of these things make micro markets secure and feasible than other options.

Micro Market Trends You Can Expect in the Future

While there is no denying that micro markets have experienced rapid growth recently, they are just getting started and you may see one almost everywhere. Here are few things you can expect in the micro market industry soon.

New and Improved Security

Security is one of the things holding large-scale adoption of micro markets back. However, with new and improved solutions, which include card-based payment systems and facial recognition, you can expect more businesses to introduce micro markets on their premises.

Value Added Services

There is a significant chance that we could see loyalty features, marketing opportunities and vouchers being integrated in micro markets. All of this will become possible through new technological solutions capable of providing these services and features from a single device.

Cheaper Payment and Easier Management

Besides benefitting customers, micro markets will also be vastly helpful for remote operators, offering them deep insights. These could help operators lower operation and setup costs while increasing their profitability.