Payments

EMV vending transactions surge 400% in 2022

Image provided by Cantaloupe Inc.

June 13, 2023

EMV transactions at food and beverage machines posted more than 400% growth in 2022, according to the recently released 2023 Micropayment Trends Report from Cantaloupe Inc., a digital payments and software services company that provides end-to-end technology solutions to power self-service commerce.

This growth is partly due to the fact that consumers increasingly prefer making tap payments, and EMV-enabled credit cards allow for a faster and easier tap-to-pay experience, according to a press release on the findings.

EMV helps reduce the chance of in-person credit/debit card fraud and increase the security of consumer financial data.

A consumer with an EMV-enabled credit or debit card can pay by either inserting the card into a payment terminal or going contactless by tapping to pay.

While EMV chip cards have been available for a few years, their use has steadily increased in the U.S., particularly at self-service retail applications like vending machines, self-service kiosks and micro markets.

The 2023 Micropayment Trends Report included analysis from a sample set of almost 675,000 active card readers on food and beverage vending machines in the U.S. and Canada, from January to December 2022.

The results showed that EMV payments grew by more than 350% as a share of cashless sales at these machines in 2022, accounting for more than $500 million in sales for the year.

The number of total EMV transactions increased by more than 400% over the course of the year.

In January, EMV payments only accounted for 14% of cashless transactions at food and beverage vending machines; by December, that number was over 52%.

EMVCo, a global technical organization collectively owned by American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard, UnionPay and Visa, creates and manages EMV specifications and programs that enable seamless and secure card-based payments for businesses and consumers worldwide.