A recent case study by Triton Systems highlights how an ATM can boost sales for local merchants.
The Waldo, Fla., Farmers and Flea Market bills itself as north central Florida’s largest flea market, with 1,000 booths covering 50 acres that attract 35,000 visitors per weekend.
Most of the booths are run by part-time merchants that don’t accept credit cards. Many of them don’t even take checks. So making it easy for customers to have cash on hand is crucial to the market’s success.
Steve Blakewood, the market’s owner, makes that happen with two ATM machines. The machines are kept very busy, typically dispensing $25,000 per weekend.
Blakewood notes that the machines boost sales in several ways.
“It’s a real convenience for our dealers because the customer can get
cash and go back to the booth,” Blakewood said. “A lot of people don’t
intend to spend money but they end up seeing something they want, and
come back two or three times to the machine.”
Merchants use the machine, too, often paying their booth-rental fees in cash. Blakewood sets the transaction fee at a relatively low $2.00, both as a convenience and to encourage repeat use.
It seems to be working.
Blakewood estimates that about 50 percent of the money flows to the flea market dealers and the revenue generated by the transaction fees supplements the flea market income. By way of comparison, experts estimate that about 30 percent of the cash withdrawn in a convenience store ATM is spent in the store.
Blakewoods experience demonstrates the three main ways ATMs help merchants: transaction fees, increased sales and avoiding credit-card processing fees.
