The killer feature of a web-connected vending machine is the ability to process credit cards and mobile payments. But the Freestyle machines and the smart vending machines also open a new frontier in collecting real-time data about customer behavior. Coca-Cola could greatly simplify logistics, as Businessweek points out, by making it possible to know when to restock a machine and how much inventory each one needs, without having to send a truck to each one first.
That only scratches the surface, Matherly says. Because the machines use digital displays, Coca-Cola could do the same type of A/B testing that marketers and political campaigners do on websites and advertisements. For example, the company could determine which arrangements of drinks lead to the most sales, and it could customize the displays on each individual machine depending on what works best for its customers.