Rawls and USAT Expand Partnership with New EPort Connect Deal

Vending service provider Rawls Distributing Company becomes the newest company to leverage USA Technologies’ ePort Connect service—a PCI-compliant suite of cashless payment and telemetry services designed for self-serve retail industries.

Under the deal between the two companies, USAT will provide cashless and telemetry services to enable and track acceptance of cash, credit cards, debit cards and mobile wallet payments at most machines through the NFC-capable ePort Connect.

Additionally, Rawls Distributing Co has signed up for USAT’s Premier Support Services offerings, giving them access to services such as deployment planning, project management, installation support, staff training, cashless, mobile payment marketing and loyalty programs and funding support.

As part of the Premier Services agreement, Rawls will also have a role in USAT’s model market program, which seeks to expedite consumer adoption through site-specific support, marketing and strategic deployment planning.

An expansion of the cashless program, the new Premier Services deal will see the deployment of more ePorts in self-service machines and upgrade of older equipment to make all of Rawls’ machines cashless and NFC-capable.

This is not the first time that the two companies will be working together. Rawls, an early adopter of integrated cashless and VMS technology, teamed up with USAT in 2011 to enable 50 percent of its machines with Edge ePort.

Rawls has already enabled 50 percent of its machines with ePort Connect. At this rate, the company has already seen a 33 percent increase in cashless usage, said president Robin Rawls, attributing the greater volume and higher profit margins to new ePort deployments and upgrades.