CLMS managing director Simon Barff used his seminar at ARE to deliver a “detailed, data-led look” at the real impact of cashless payments across the UK machine estate, utilising data collated from more than 35,000 machines.

During the session, Barff explored how cash, contactless and app-based payments are performing across different categories, regions and supplier solutions, to reveal a market that is evolving “quickly, but not uniformly.”

“One of the clearest messages from the session was that cashless is now a significant driver of machine income,” said the CLMS chief. “Contactless is continuing to grow across a wide range of products, with many operators seeing strong performance where card and cash are offered side by side.”

“However, [it] was clear that the industry should avoid treating all cashless solutions as equal. Performance varies significantly depending on the product, supplier and installation environment.”

Practical challenges such as power supply, battery life and integration can still affect performance, particularly on products not originally designed with cashless in mind, while Barff also highlighted important differences between cash-and-card and card-only machines. “While card-only can work well in some environments, the data suggests that retaining cash alongside contactless often provides operators with greater flexibility and avoids excluding customers who still prefer or rely on cash.”