You Own TCN Machines: This Is What uNobo Connect Adds to Them

uNobo Connect turns your TCN machines into a connected store. We replace the manufacturer’s interface entirely, and only the manufacturer’s drivers remain. Your customer buys from their phone by QR or NFC with nothing to download, using one basket for every machine on the site. You take payments through a single gateway, see every sale in your panel, get alerts and have SofIA, our technical AI, 24 hours a day. No commission on your sales.

I am writing this for people who operate or sell TCN machines, in Latin America or in Europe. I will tell you what changes on the screen, on your customer’s phone, between your machines, in payments and in your day to day, what the law requires and what it costs.

What uNobo Connect is

uNobo Connect is Bonobo’s own, exclusive technology: the operating system for unattended retail. It is not an app. It is the layer that makes your machines sell like an online store and lets you manage them from your phone.

On your TCN machines it comes in through the manufacturer’s software and replaces its interface. On machines from other brands with an MDB bus it comes in through the bus. That way your whole fleet runs on the same system.

The screen on your TCN becomes yours

The screen of your TCN stops showing the manufacturer’s interface. We remove it entirely. From the machine we keep the drivers, which are what move the mechanics, and the uNobo Connect interface goes on top.

What does a friendly interface add? Your customer understands the machine straight away. They see photos, prices and combos, with your brand and in your language, and buy by touching the screen or from their phone. There are no codes to type and no physical buttons to fail: the keypad is virtual. And you keep it up to date yourself: you change products, prices, planogram, images and videos from the panel, without going to the machine.

Your customer buys from their phone

The customer scans the QR code on the screen or taps their phone via NFC. The uNobo Connect web app opens in their browser: nothing to download and no account to create. They choose, pay and collect. The receipt stays on their phone.

The proof that it works is that people come back. In our network, 98.5% of those who try the web app buy again.

Your machines work as one store

Here is what changes the business. With uNobo Connect, the machines on the same site talk to each other. Your customer takes a coffee from one, a sandwich from another and water from the third, and pays for it all at once. It does not matter if they come from different manufacturers.

What does that add? A purchase stops being a single product. The customer fills a basket, as in an online store, and you build cross-machine combos: the coffee from one with the sandwich from another, at a combo price and in a single charge.

One charge and one gateway

In traditional vending, each machine takes payment separately, through its own terminal. With uNobo Connect your whole fleet takes payment through a single payment gateway, however many machines you have and whoever made them.

What does it add? All your sales come in through the same place and you see them together in your panel. Adding a machine does not mean adding a payment terminal. And because uNobo Connect is gateway-agnostic, you connect the one you already use or the one your country requires: MONEI, Redsys, Nexi, Adyen, among others.

Your customer pays by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and each market’s local methods, such as Bizum in Spain. On our side, zero commission per transaction.

You sell more per purchase

With the basket on the phone, the machine stops just dispensing and starts selling like an online store. You have three features:

• Combos. On the same machine or across machines: a snack here, a drink there, one combo price and one charge.
• Suggested selling. At checkout, the web app offers the customer the right add-on, as any online store does.
• Wallet & points. Balance and loyalty points that bring the customer back, with no physical cards. The points programme works like cashback and you switch it on. On GROW you can also open a points store that you run yourself.

We measured it in our network: where combos and suggested selling are active, the average ticket is 30% higher.

Your panel, on your phone

You run all of this from one panel, on your phone or on your computer:

• Sales, stock and temperature for each machine, in real time.
• Your whole fleet and its history in a single console, with reports.
• Products, prices, planogram, combos, and the images and videos on the screen, changed remotely.
• What sells, what runs out and what to restock, so you can plan each refill.

With machines spread across several cities, every visit you save is margin. Changing a price from the panel avoids a trip that would exist only for that.

Alerts and SofIA, 24 hours a day

Alerts tell you in real time what is happening at each machine: low stock, a temperature out of range or any incident, before it becomes a problem.

SofIA is our technical AI. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on every tier, START included, at no cost per query. You ask it in plain language about sales, stock or a fault and it answers instantly. If there is a fault, it diagnoses it and guides you step by step. If the incident stays open, it passes the case to a human technician who connects remotely to your machine’s electronics.

That is how more than 80% of incidents are resolved in our network, without anyone going to the machine.

Age, the law and data protection

With uNobo Connect you can sell age-restricted products, such as alcohol, pharmacy items or adult products, 24 hours a day and with no attendant. Before dispensing, biometric age verification confirms in seconds, with no human involved, that the buyer meets the required age. Dispensing complies with age regulations and each verification leaves an audit trail.

And it protects your customer’s data: the identity is tokenised and we do not store the ID document. The token is kept, so their next purchases do not repeat the verification.

Bonobo Services OÜ is a European company, based in Tallinn, subject to the GDPR, and it works with European sub-processors.

Tiers and pricing

You pay by tier and per machine, not by volume, and with no commission on your sales. These are the prices for the European Union: you begin on START, with no fee, and move up when it suits you. Outside the EU, pricing is worked out in each country with the Country Partner.

A simple sum at EU pricing: ten machines on STORE come to €95 a month plus VAT, €1,140 a year, and not a cent on each sale. The current pricing is published on the uNobo Connect page.

How you try it on your machines

You try it before you decide anything, on your own machines and with your own products.

Ask for the uNobo Connect trial on your machines or write to me at info@bonoboservices.com.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to the interface my TCN comes with? We replace it entirely with the uNobo Connect interface. The machine keeps its drivers, which move the mechanics.

Do my customers have to download an app or create an account? No. They scan the QR code or tap their phone via NFC and buy in the web app, from the browser.

Can I combine my TCN machines with other brands’ machines on the same site? Yes. uNobo Connect connects to any machine with an MDB bus, and the basket crosses machines even when they come from different manufacturers.

Which gateway do I use to take payments in my country? A single one for your whole fleet. uNobo Connect is gateway-agnostic: you connect the one you already use or the one your market requires.

Do you charge a commission on each sale? No. You pay by tier and per machine, never per sale. In the EU, from €0, billed annually and with no lock-in.

Does SofIA cost extra? No. It is included on every tier, START included, at no cost per query.

If you have TCN machines, ask for the trial on yours and see it working with your products and your customers.

Román Suárez, Founder of Bonobo Services OÜ