Smart Vending IoT Success

Barista Coffee via IoT Vending.

Learn why Costa Express selected Eseye to power its estate of smart vending coffee machines in 17+ countries.

Delivering premium quality drinks globally

Costa Coffee is a leading provider of premium quality drinks in a highly competitive and continually evolving market. Hungry for growth and thriving on innovation the introduction of Costa Express and self-service vending machines has enabled the brand to extend its reach and rapidly increase market share. 

The concept of ‘on-the-go’ coffee has enabled Costa Express to dramatically increase its brand profile and reach. Yet, as a premium brand it’s critical that the machines match the quality, service and experience delivered through barista-made coffee in store. A commanding reputation, a strong track-record in innovation combined with ambitious plans meant that Costa Express needed to deploy an end-to-end IoT service, bringing together best-of-breed services across a range of experienced suppliers. 

Why Costa chose Eseye

Overcoming the hurdles of Smart Vending

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High machine uptime

Costa Express machines are powered by near 100% global connectivity, enabling high machine uptime and more sales.

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Cost savings

Using condition data, the machine signals itself when it needs to be serviced. This preventative maintenance equals lower service costs and higher availability.

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Customer satisfaction

Display marketing campaigns can be integrated and used as an additional channel to communicate with customers. Implementing contactless payment is also convenient and hygienic on–the-go.

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Take a deeper dive into Costa’s IoT journey. Find out how we helped them overcome smart vending hurdles that might stall your IoT project, and see how we can help your business succeed with IoT.

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Plans for international expansion and the need to transfer data in real-time led Costa Express to explore a variety of IoT solutions. It initially investigated several connectivity solutions, including on-site Ethernet or over-the-air (OTA) cellular connection. However, Ethernet meant relying on the site owner – often a convenience store or forecourt operator – and increased connectivity risk. For example, a modem failing would result in a failed connection, and could lead to lost business, frustrated customers, and trigger a costly engineer site visit. 

Eseye has supported the company in deploying IoT-enabled vending machines, with confidence, and on a global scale.  

Harnessing IoT with Costa

Integrated IoT solution

Costa Express benefited from Eseye and Device Insight’s technology partnership. The smart machines utilise Eseye’s AnyNet Connectivity Platform and Device Insight’s IoT operations and vending services solution. 

Costa Express Machine - How We Did It Image

IoT hardware and connectivity expertise

Each machine is fitted with Eseye’s HERA 604 IoT router which has over-the-air network switching as standard when deployed. Embedded with an eUICC compliant, AnyNet+ SIM, Costa Express machines can automatically connect in 190 countries and achieve near 100% connectivity. Firmware updates can easily be sent over-the-air to the routers when new functionality is developed and made available.

Eseye Hera 604 Router

Easy onboarding

With a single SKU, new coffee machines are commissioned much more efficiently – machine parameters are set in advance, for example language and price. An installation partner simply sets it up, then the machine automatically adopts the correct settings, connects to a local network, and is ready to start serving coffee.   

Costa Vending Design - How We Did It

Real-time telemetry

Costa Express coffee machines around the world are reliably and ubiquitously connected, allowing machine and sales data to be made transparently accessible, and enabling intelligent condition monitoring and alert notifications. 

Costa Coffee Cup - How We Did It Image

Eseye’s fully redundant fault-tolerant network provides a managed connectivity service with a global footprint, whilst support for multiple cellular networks in each geographical region enables close to 100% connectivity uptime. This means that we can deploy connected devices and deliver premium quality drinks virtually anywhere in the world. A real advantage as the company is seeking to expand rapidly across international markets

Paul Borrett, Systems & Data Director

The phenomenal and continuing success of the IoT enabled Costa Express brand is something we are incredibly proud to be part of. The combined use of Eseye hardware and cellular services helps us to ensure Costa Express can easily deploy almost anywhere in the world, keeping connected, receiving valuable data and delivering a premium experience for their customers, and of course great growth for the business

Nick Earle, Chairman and CEO

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