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That's the modest share of cashless payments recorded by ECB (SPACE) data in 2016. By 2022, the figure had climbed past 50%.
Vending picked up on the trend. According to EVA data for 2024, 85% of vending machines in Europe are already equipped with cashless payment. By that point, cashless transactions accounted for 71% of sales in automated retail, up 17% from 2023.
But what did things look like before cashless really took off?
Back in the (not so) distant 2010s, good old cash was the most common way to pay. But despite its popularity, it was far from running like clockwork. Vending business owners and their customers regularly ran into inconveniences and problems that came with this payment method.
One of the weakest links in vending at the time was bill and coin validators. The older a machine got, the more often it refused to accept money or rejected it by mistake. For the customer, that meant a failed purchase; for the operator, lost revenue.
Then there's theft and vandalism, a problem as old as time. Back in 2013, VendingMarketWatch was publishing theft reports almost weekly. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Owners described how organized the criminals were: they made duplicate keys and, within a few days, cleaned out entire networks of machines in one city before moving on to the next.
By 2025, the statistics confirmed the scale of the problem: up to 30% of machines worldwide have been broken into at least once, with each incident costing the operator an average of $500.
The shift from physical money to cashless payments didn't happen in a day, or even in a year. Several large-scale developments drove it:
In the 2010s, the smartphone stopped being just a device for making calls and became a universal tool for everyday life. People started using online banking, paying for purchases on the internet, and got used to having that modern convenience right in their pocket.
NFC technology and services like Apple Pay and Google Pay (more on that in the next section) made paying as fast and easy as it gets. To buy a coffee and a snack, you no longer had to dig through your wallet or fish around your pockets for change. For the vending business, this was a major step forward: faster purchases mean more sales.
This difficult period for everyone became the strongest and most irreversible tipping point in the shift to cashless payments. Most people tried to minimize contact with cash and shared surfaces, since at the time it was considered a health risk due to possible infection. So businesses started actively rolling out contactless technologies.
Millennials and Gen Z are the generations that grew up in the era of bank cards, mobile banking, and smartphones. For them, cashless payment never had to become a new habit; it was part of everyday life from the start.
Today, these people make up a significant share of vending's target audience: they buy coffee at the office, drinks at the mall, snacks at the gym. A fast, convenient purchase is the baseline expectation. That's why the absence of cashless is increasingly seen not as a quirk of a particular location, but as its shortcoming. If a machine doesn't take a card or a smartphone, that's simply a dealbreaker these days.
Even the most brilliant payment method can't be universal, which is why other payment types were created to join the terminal lineup.
The best solution for closed locations where vending machines are used mainly by employees or regular visitors. This payment format is common in offices, manufacturing facilities, hospitals, schools, and other access-controlled sites.
For location owners, this system opens up extra possibilities. A company can set its own rules for card usage: spending limits, a monthly bonus, or a fixed number of purchases within a set period.
The payment process is simple and quick: a person taps the card, picks a product, waits for the charge, and takes their coffee or snack. They can also instantly check their remaining balance or the number of purchases left.
has become one of the most widespread cashless options in automated retail thanks to its versatility. It suits most business formats: coffee and snack vending machines, the amusement segment, water dispensers, self-service laundromats, and other automated points of sale. It works equally well in malls, schools, and street locations.
The main reason for its popularity is how easy it is to implement. All it takes is installing a small device and applying a sticker with a QR code and an NFC tag on it. Compared to classic terminals, there's no drilling holes or lengthy installation work; setup takes 15 minutes.
This cashless solution also helps reduce vandalism risks. If the payment element gets damaged, replacing a sticker is quick and far cheaper than repairing or replacing a terminal.
For the customer, payment takes just a few taps. Scan the QR code or hold your smartphone to the NFC tag, pick a product, pay via Apple Pay or Google Pay, and collect your order. No apps to install :)
gained popularity in retail, where coffee or vending machines operate alongside the checkout area. In this scenario, the customer chooses a drink at the checkout, pays for it along with the rest of their shopping, and receives a QR code. Then all they have to do is scan the code at the machine, which automatically prepares the order.
This solution takes the load off cashiers, since coffee preparation is no longer part of their job, which in turn shortens the lines. It also reduces theft risks: the QR code already contains the exact drink ordered at the checkout, so nothing else can be prepared.
The switch to cashless was a giant leap forward for vending.
First and foremost, let's be honest about why any business makes changes: more sales. According to eVending data published in 2026, adding cashless increased a vending machine's sales by 20-30%, simply because the "no cash on me" barrier disappeared. And with it, customer trust in the business grows too.
According to our own data, transactions via mobile wallets (phones, smartwatches) grew by more than 300% in 2024 compared to 2023.
In effect, cashless changed not just the way people pay, but the very logic of the purchase. A buyer used to check first whether they had enough cash on hand. Now most people decide much more simply: "I want a coffee" → "I'm buying a coffee."
The fewer obstacles between those two steps, the more successful purchases a business gets. And that's exactly what happened.
Over the past ten years, cashless payment has come a long way, from a nice-to-have option to an essential standard. What looked like a competitive edge for select points of sale in 2016 is now simply a given.
We've watched this transformation from the very beginning and seen how consumer habits, technology, and the whole approach to the vending business have changed.
That's why ProstoPay offers four types of cashless payment for automated retail, from standard contactless payment to the more exotic QR voucher.
Choose the format that best fits your budget and your customers' needs.
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