New payment methods appear faster than customers can get used to them. Vending is no exception. Once, a machine that accepted cards was considered modern. Today, that is nothing special: machines now offer QR codes, smartphone payments, purchase bonuses and the option to leave feedback.
It is getting harder to surprise today's customer. That is why the market keeps looking for new solutions: some reinvent the wheel, others combine familiar technologies in new ways. Some of these solutions genuinely meet new customer needs. But at first glance, they may seem unclear, unnecessary or even suspicious.
This is where the barrier comes from. A customer sees a new payment method, pauses for a second and still chooses the option they are more used to. They do it automatically, and for the operator, it is a sign: the new solution has not yet become clear.
In this article, we look at why novelty is perceived as a barrier, which blockers stand behind the phrase "I don't want anything new" and whether they need to be overcome at all.
"I don't want anything new" rarely means just one thing. Behind this phrase, there is usually one of five reasons. And each one has its own solution.
A person sees a QR code or an NFC tag on the machine and does not know what happens next. Will they have to download something afterwards? What is the next step? What will happen to their money? When there are no answers, the hand reaches back for what is familiar.
In reality, a "complex" or unusual technology often hides a simple process. This is what web payment looks like:
The novelty here is not in what the customer does. The camera, Apple Pay and Google Pay are already familiar. The only new thing is that it all works on a single web page, with no extra steps. The operator's task is to show this before the customer has time to doubt it. A short instruction right on the machine answers these questions before the first payment.
In vending, the customer pays first and only then receives the product. With cash, everything is visible: the money goes into the machine, and the amount appears on the display. With a new method, the money is debited from the phone, and the person stands and waits. In that second, there is one question on their mind: "What if it doesn't dispense?"
There is also a new kind of fear: a fake QR code. Fraudsters stick fake QR codes over genuine ones and redirect payments to their own websites. Distrust of payments exists online too: according to Baymard Institute, 19% of US online shoppers have abandoned an order because they did not trust the site with their card details.
Transparency and feedback remove distrust. A branded sticker instead of a "bare" QR code. A payment page that clearly shows what exactly the person is paying for. A way to quickly report a problem if something goes wrong. For example, with ProstoPay Web Payment, the customer can leave feedback right after the purchase, and the operator will see it in their dashboard.
Every extra step between wanting something and buying it filters out some customers. The more actions are needed, the more moments there are when a person can change their mind and walk away.
At the machine, this is felt especially strongly. A purchase costs a few euros, and the customer has only a few seconds for it. Download an app and register, all for a single coffee? Take web payment as an example: there is no app and no registration. The customer scans the code and pays. Even loyalty bonuses are credited automatically, without creating an account.
This blocker is rarely named out loud. At a vending machine, a person is almost never alone: there are colleagues, a queue, passers-by. Trying a new payment method means risking looking confused. It is easier to pay the usual way.
The presence of others really does change how we act. In a study by Wood, Quinn and Kashy (2002), people thought more often about what exactly they were doing when others were around. The authors link this to the fact that in public, we care more about how we look. And when a person watches every move they make, any hesitation becomes noticeable to them.
Three things remove this blocker. A process in which it is hard to make a mistake. A hint that is visible even before the person approaches the machine. And the option to switch back to the usual method without any awkwardness. That is why a new payment method should be added to the existing ones, not replace them.
The strongest blocker is not even noticed. A person buys coffee from the same machine every day and pays the same way every time. They do not choose a payment method: it happens automatically.
Research confirms this too. In the same study by Wood, Quinn and Kashy, between a third and a half of the participants' daily actions turned out to be habits: they were repeated almost every day and usually in the same place. During such actions, people often thought about something completely different. Unfamiliar actions, on the other hand, required attention and came with a stronger sense of stress.
For vending, the conclusion is simple: a new payment method competes not with another method but with autopilot. The customer does not compare options. They simply do not notice the alternative. That is why it is not enough for a new method to be more convenient. It needs a reason for the person to break out of the routine at least once: a noticeable sticker, a bonus, a promotion. After a few repetitions in the same place, the new method becomes a habit on its own.
Most of these blockers depend not on the customer, but on how the solution is designed and presented at the machine.
Before answering, there is one detail worth keeping in mind. Customers rarely report a barrier. They simply pay the way they always do, or walk away without buying. Sales statistics show those who made a purchase, but not those who came up to the machine, found no convenient way to pay and left.
Meanwhile, payment habits are changing faster than it may seem. According to the European Central Bank, 55% of consumers in the euro area prefer to pay by card or other cashless means in shops. Almost a quarter (24%) said that over the past month their preferred payment method was not always accepted where they shopped. That is why conclusions about customers' needs are more reliable when they are based on data rather than intuition.
So, does every barrier need to be overcome?
No. Some barriers are simply worth waiting out, while others should be treated as a signal. To tell one from the other, it helps to divide them into two types.
The novelty barrier. The person has not tried the new method yet, has not seen others pay with it and has not had time to get used to it. Barriers like this weaken on their own over time and with every successful payment.
The inconvenience barrier appears when a payment method requires more effort than the customer is willing to spend. If a person has to download an app for a coffee, they are right to refuse. This is not conservatism but a normal reaction to unnecessary steps. This barrier will not disappear on its own: only changes to the solution can remove it.
Hence the principle: if the barrier is rational, it is the solution itself that needs fixing.
Something new takes hold when two conditions are met. First, the payment method does not require learning anything new. Second, it gives the customer a reason to try it and come back.
A new solution takes hold fastest when it builds on an action people already know. The history of QR codes shows this well. For a long time, scanning a QR code required downloading a separate app. Then smartphones learned to recognise codes with the regular camera (on the iPhone, this arrived with iOS 11 in 2017). The extra step disappeared. People did not have to learn anything new: they simply pointed the camera, as they had done hundreds of times before.
The same logic works in vending. Customers already know how to point a camera at a code or tap a phone on a tag. That is why a new payment method should be built around these actions rather than inventing new ones.
A familiar action removes fear. But on its own, it does not make a person change a habit. For that, the new method has to offer practical value.
This is one of the oldest findings in technology research. In 1989, Fred Davis examined what is more strongly linked to the use of new computer programs: practical value or ease of use. In both of his studies, practical value had the stronger link to use. Ease of use, judging by the results, works more as a precondition: it helps a person see that value.
Smartphones are the best example here. The first iPhone came out in 2007, but the App Store only opened in July 2008. At launch, it offered more than 500 apps: games, news, sports, travel, business. People did not get used to the touchscreen itself. They got used to what it allowed them to do, and the habit of holding a smartphone followed.
It is not enough to tell a customer "you can now pay by phone". That describes a method, not a reason to use it. The reason is what the person gets in addition: a bonus for repeat purchases, a free drink after several payments, the option to tell the operator right away if something went wrong.
With ProstoPay Web Payment, these things are built into the payment itself. Every purchase brings the customer closer to a free drink, and feedback can be left right after paying. So someone who has tried the new method once gets a reason to come back to it.
Novelty stops being a barrier when the customer no longer notices it and sees only the practical value.
Over time, any new solution becomes a must-have.
That is why the earlier you start trying it, the more time you have to test it thoroughly: to understand in which locations it works best, how to guide customers and what needs to change.
So there is no need to fear novelty. Every habit that seems obvious today was once new and raised the same doubts. The novelty barrier is more like a threshold than a wall: you cross it once and then simply stop noticing it. And perhaps it is right beyond this threshold that you will find what your business has long been missing.
