Unmanned shop is getting popular for its low labour cost and all-day operation availability. Vending machine has been in the market for years without much innovation. Taiwanese bubble tea stores are all over the street with long queue especially in summer. This offers a business opportunity. This thesis identifies and discusses the business opportunity of running an automatic Taiwanese bubble tea vending machine from its machine development to business plan.

Drink vending machines have been in the market for decades. Most of them sells pre-packaged drinks and instantly made coffee. However, vending machines highlighting consumer preference including portion adjustment of the ingredients and choices of toppings have not been explored thoroughly. The automation of drink shaking and handl...[ Read more ]

Unmanned shop is getting popular for its low labour cost and all-day operation availability. Vending machine has been in the market for years without much innovation. Taiwanese bubble tea stores are all over the street with long queue especially in summer. This offers a business opportunity. This thesis identifies and discusses the business opportunity of running an automatic Taiwanese bubble tea vending machine from its machine development to business plan.

Drink vending machines have been in the market for decades. Most of them sells pre-packaged drinks and instantly made coffee. However, vending machines highlighting consumer preference including portion adjustment of the ingredients and choices of toppings have not been explored thoroughly. The automation of drink shaking and handling toppings, like tapioca balls, aloe vera cubes, and cheese milk cover, in the vending machines has not been examined before and this technological feature is not available in the market.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the development of the automated vending machine that can make and sell bubble tea. However, there are a number of problems, like supply chain of the raw materials, hygiene, products’ quality and user experience, to prevent this technological advancement of the automated vending machine.

This study will also explore the business opportunity of Taiwanese bubble tea, vending machine and unmanned shop by its market segmentation, and business operation.