You could find nearly anything in vending machines today—connoisseur espresso, contemporary salads, tech devices, and even medicines.
These machines have clearly developed past providing simply comfort objects. You possibly can even consider them as micro-retail hubs, small, automated storefronts that deliver a variety of merchandise on to customers.
And so they’re all over the place. You possibly can spot them in malls, workplace buildings, and even tucked proper exterior your HDB block. In reality, statistics reported by CNA present that merchandising machine gross sales in Singapore went up for 4 consecutive years between 2020 and 2024, from S$85.7 million to S$116.8 million.
However what precisely makes a merchandising machine enterprise so interesting, and why are they multiplying in Singapore?
Saving on hire, employees & extra
Working a enterprise in Singapore isn’t any stroll within the park. The challenges of sustaining a bodily storefront are well-known: sky-high rental charges that present no signal of easing, stiff competitors, and the fixed stress to innovate.
These hurdles have solely turn into extra pronounced post-COVID, pushed by shifting shopper behaviours and financial headwinds. Enterprise closures are rampant—in reality, Singapore noticed a surge in business liquidations within the first half of 2025, hitting a five-year excessive.
The churn has been particularly relentless within the F&B trade, which noticed record closures last year with over 3,000 retailers shutting down, the very best in 20 years. This 12 months, between Jan and Oct 2025, 2,431 F&B establishments shuttered, and 63% of these had solely been working for 5 years or much less. Much more strikingly, 82% of those had by no means made a revenue, highlighting simply how troublesome it’s to construct a sustainable enterprise right here.
So, it’s no shock that extra companies are turning to merchandising machines—you don’t must pay these sky-high rents, you don’t want full-time employees, and overhead prices are massively decreased.
A number of operators surveyed by CNA famous that the month-to-month price of renting the smaller area required for a merchandising machine can vary from S$300 to S$800 in procuring centres, and S$600 to S$1,100 at bus and practice stations.
That is precisely why Kaki Kaki, a Singapore durian vendor that operates seven durian merchandising machines, finds the mannequin enticing. The enterprise stated that hire is “considerably” extra reasonably priced than renting a stall, permitting price financial savings to be handed onto customers whereas doubling down on high quality.
“The extra we save, the extra we’re in a position to buy higher high quality durians and move on the financial savings to the patron.”
On-line retailers are additionally adopting merchandising machines to spice up gross sales and market themselves in Singapore—with out the monetary burden of working a full retailer.
Kegan Tan, the director of Spartan Sports activities, which sells sporting items on-line, explained to The Straits Times that merchandising machines are a “comparatively low-cost approach” for on-line companies to determine a bodily presence.
“Merchandising machines grew to become a approach for us to create an offline presence that generates visitors to our on-line retailer and e-commerce platform pages,” Kegan stated. On the finish of 2024, he owned three machines, which he rotated amongst malls, bus stops, and residential areas.
For these on-line companies, merchandising machines additionally enhance operational effectivity. Automotive care product retailer Pitstop Detailz, which beforehand bought its merchandise by Carousell, now operates 5 merchandising machines in carparks throughout Singapore. The machines have considerably decreased the time spent packing and transport orders, permitting the enterprise to concentrate on progress and buyer engagement.
Nevertheless it isn’t so easy to implement
Given the way it’s benefitted these companies, merchandising machines may appear to be a no brainer—even an idle option to earn cash. Simply get a machine, plonk it someplace seen, fill it with merchandise individuals want or may need, and watch the cash roll in, proper?
However the actuality of operating a merchandising machine isn’t almost as passive because it sounds. Stock administration, upkeep, restocking, cost system monitoring, and placement technique all demand time, effort, and cautious planning.
Take hot meal vending brand Chef-in-Box, for example. After they first launched, no merchandising machine had efficiently delivered scorching meals to customers with out human involvement. Conventional machines additionally couldn’t observe inventory or troubleshoot points remotely, a limitation that usually led to important meals wastage at low-traffic areas.
To beat this, Chef-in-Field invested closely in programs that gather and analyse knowledge from each machine, monitoring consumption patterns, buyer preferences, and peak hours.
On prime of this, to keep up hygiene and freshness, in addition they wanted to make investments time and assets into frequent cleansing, sanitisation, and cautious temperature monitoring. All of their machines are cleaned and sanitised every day, whereas built-in sensors monitor temperature and inventory.
Equally, InstaChef operates under a comparable model, with frequent restocking, rigorous cleansing schedules, and AI-enabled monitoring to make sure meals are secure, contemporary, and persistently out there.
Even when your merchandising machines don’t dispense scorching meals or perishable items, there are nonetheless quite a few operational concerns that may shortly add up in prices. SingSaver estimates machine upkeep to begin from S$100 per session, whereas transport and labour for restocking can run S$30 to S$50 per spherical.
Merchandising machine operators additionally want insurance coverage as there are dangers that might trigger monetary loss or legal responsibility points—and in keeping with the publication, you’ll need to spend at least S$600 per year for business protection.
Gross sales should not assured, too. For White Dew Flower, a florist that operates a number of merchandising machines throughout Singapore, the principle problem it confronted was rising its enterprise.
Gross sales efficiency differs from location to location, and there’s additionally a “lack of obtainable area” for flower merchandising machines in procuring malls, the place footfall is usually greater.
“Most malls have already got a flower store and people with out one wouldn’t have designated areas for merchandising machines,” Perry Peng, the enterprise’s founder, advised CNA.
A profitable choice regardless of rising competitors
That stated, merchandising machines nonetheless provide a doubtlessly profitable enterprise mannequin. If hire and manpower prices proceed to pose main hurdles for companies establishing store, industry players believe the merchandising machine increase could effectively proceed.
However with extra gamers getting into the scene, competitors for area is intensifying—and that brings its personal challenges.
Full-service merchandising operator Allied Merchandising, for example, famous that even securing areas is changing into more and more troublesome. “Singapore land could be very scarce… as extra individuals get into the area, location charges could begin going up and that eats into your enterprise case.”
For now, although, it’s nonetheless way more accessible than opening a brick-and-mortar retailer—particularly in a local weather the place customers are more and more valuing affordability and comfort.
And in contrast to conventional shops, a poorly performing machine can merely be relocated fairly than shut down, giving operators an extra stage of flexibility.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Kaki Kaki/ White Dew Flower/ GK Tan by way of Google Evaluations
