| [April 09, 2012] |
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Two-Tier Pricing Options Help USA Technologies' Customers Accelerate Adoption of Cashless Payment Solutions
MALVERN, Pa. --(Business Wire)--
USA
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: USAT), ("USAT"), a leader of wireless,
cashless payment and M2M telemetry solutions for small-ticket,
self-serve retailing industries, today announced that data from its
customer Knowledge Base (News - Alert) shows that its recently introduced Two-Tier
Pricing Program ("Two-Tier") can be a valuable tool in moving the
small-ticket industry to cashless payments. More specifically, cashless
sales and usage data extracted from a diverse sample of USAT's Two-Tier
customer base, showed greater sales activity in the two weeks after
deployment of the Two-Tier Pricing Program than before-an important
insight for customers waiting to gauge the effect of two-tier on
consumer behavior.
"These recent findings should help alleviate customer concerns about
declining cashless sales with a two-tier pricing strategy," said Michael
Lawlor, Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development for USA
Technologies. "USA Technologies (News - Alert) has been watching consumer response very
closely. We knew our Two-Tier Pricing Program would be popular with our
vending customers looking for ways to offset the processing costs
associated with cashless transactions. Not only does USA Technologies'
Two-Tier Pricing Program give them the ability to do that, but now we
have positive information about the consumer response to two-tier
pricing that we believe strengthens the case for further expansion of
cashless payments in vending."
USA Technologies' Two-Tier
Pricing Program gives operators of small-ticket, unattended
terminals like vending machines the ability to charge two different vend
prices-the standard retail price for credit/debit transactions and a
lower discounted price for cash purchases-allowing operators to offset
the cost of card processing. As an extension of USAT's ePort Connect®
service offering, operators have the ability to adjust prices by account
or by machine, utilizing USAT's over-the-air-update system. ePort
Connect is USAT's one-stop suite of services for unattended,
small-ticket cashless transactions that currently includes card
processing, merchant account services, wireless connectivity, DEX data
transfer, online sales reporting, settlement services, level 1
PCI (News - Alert)-compliant data security, over-the-air updates and machine health
alerts.
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In evaluating the impact that the Two-Tier Pricing Program has had on
consumer behavior, USA Technologies collected sample data from existing
cashless terminals (approximately 450 terminals) that adopted the
Two-Tier Pricing since it was first offered by USAT in early 2012. Key
metrics were tracked, per terminal, for the two weeks before and after
deployment of USAT's Two-Tier Pricing Program to gauge the impact
two-tier pricing was having on cashless sales and usage. For the two
weeks post deployment, USAT discovered that the percentage of cashless
sales to total sales grew. In addition, cashless vends, in total, grew.
"We already know that a cashless payment offering can boost total sales
and average price per transaction-explaining those benefits wasn't our
goal here," added Jim Turner, USA Technologies' VP of Deployment
Services. "Rather, we wanted to use our Knowledge Base to address the
perception that cashless sales would go down under a two-tier model.
This information is what many of our customers have been waiting for as
they continue to evaluate when and where to deploy cashless solutions
into their existing base of vending machines. The good news here is that
cashless sales still appear to be trending up post Two-Tier deployment.
And, since a two-tier pricing strategy enables operators to cover the
cost of fees associated with processing card transactions, the cashless
business case is now stronger for an even larger population of deployed
machines."
"USAT is committed to helping customers accelerate their adoption of
cashless technologies-consumers are asking for cashless options and
mobile trends only make the investment more compelling," concluded
Lawlor. "USAT's Two-Tier Pricing Program clearly strengthens the
business case for operators and, using data we collect through our
extensive Knowledge Base, we can help our customers make the right
cashless decision for their particular industry, location or
demographic. In the end, going cashless needs to be as good for our
customers as it is for today's consumer."
To learn more about USA Technologies' Two-Tier Pricing Program, visit
the ePort Connect section of www.usatech.com
under the Products & Services tab.
About USA Technologies:
USA Technologies is a leader in the networking of wireless non-cash
transactions, associated financial/network services and energy
management. USA Technologies provides networked credit card and other
non-cash systems and services in the vending, commercial laundry,
hospitality and digital imaging industries. The Company has been granted
79 patents and has agreements with Verizon, Visa, Compass (News - Alert), Crane and
others. Visit our website at www.usatech.com
Forward-looking Statements:
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995: All statements other than statements of historical fact
included in this release, including without limitation the financial
position, achieving profitability, business strategy and the plans and
objectives of USAT's management for future operations, are
forward-looking statements. When used in this release, words such as
"anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", and similar
expressions, as they relate to USAT or its management, identify
forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on
the beliefs of USAT's management, as well as assumptions made by and
information currently available to the USAT's management. Actual results
could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking
statements as a result of certain factors, including but not limited to,
the ability of USAT to generate sufficient sales to generate operating
profits, or conduct operations at a profit; the ability of USAT to
retain key customers from whom a significant portion of its revenues is
derived; whether USAT's customers continue to operate or commence
operating ePorts received under the Jumpstart program or otherwise at
levels currently anticipated by USAT; the ability of USAT to compete
with its competitors to obtain market share; whether USAT's customers
continue to utilize USAT's transaction processing and related services,
as our customer agreements are generally cancelable by the customer on
thirty to sixty days' notice; whether the significant increase in the
interchange fees to be charged by Visa and MasterCard (News - Alert) for small ticket
debit card transactions would adversely affect our business, including
our revenues, gross profits, and anticipated future connections to our
network; whether or not accepting any MasterCard debit cards effective
mid-November 2011 would adversely affect our business, including our
revenues, gross profits, and anticipated future connections to our
network; whether USAT's existing or anticipated customers purchase ePort
devices in the future at levels currently anticipated by USAT; and,
whether USAT's customers will continue to experience the levels of
cashless sales or number of cashless transactions seen in the two-week
period following deployment of the Two-Tier Pricing Program. Readers are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this release
speaks only as of the date of this release. Unless required by law, USAT
does not undertake to release publicly any revisions to these
forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances or
to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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