Kiosks are everywhere — in airports, restaurants, retail stores, events, exhibitions, and other high-traffic locations. That's because these dedicated devices help businesses develop an offline presence and attract customers.
In 2019, the interactive kiosk market’s value stood at $23.94 billion, and by 2025, it’s expected to hit an impressive $33.05 billion. Kiosk sales had also jumped 17.9%, closely matching the double-digit growth rates of the previous two years, primarily driven by:
- Retail industry’s willingness to embrace new technology
- Strong consumer confidence and acceptance of self-service technology
- Rising mobile commerce
- Improved Internet of Things (IoT) technology
During the pandemic, the popularity of kiosks has skyrocketed as retailers seek to offer better customer experiences in a low-touch, socially distanced environment.
While kiosks are nothing new, they're still vital right now. Why? Because of the impact, these digital technologies have on the customer journey and sales.
Impact of Digital Retail Kiosks
To drive more sales and revenue, you need to help consumers find what they’re looking for and guide them through the purchase process with minimal effort and confusion. In fact, 66% of consumers agree that in-store improvements have enhanced their shopping experience.
From extending the selection and endless products in store aisles to assisting with the final steps of the BOPIS (buy-online and pick-up in-store) journey, kiosks are now — more than ever — a part of the changing business landscape.
To assist the consumer in the purchase process, businesses are also integrating kiosks with mobile solutions. For instance, Redbox customers make reservations via mobile to pick up a game or movie at one of their self-service rental machines. Walmart also sends its customers' barcodes to their mobile devices so they can check in at a kiosk for in-store pick-up items.
Before, retailers couldn’t get interaction or engagement with kiosks for customers to come up and use them. Today, consumers have a level of comfort with technology, mobile devices, and kiosks.
The kiosk itself has also changed. Initially, they were huge fixtures, but today, a kiosk can even be simply an iPad connected to a stand.
The bottom line is that consumers are more interested, more engaged, and are more comfortable with the technology. Kiosk hardware and software have also improved such that they’re more useful and reliable for consumers.
But are there any specific ways that kiosks help retailers? Let's take a deeper look at what they have to offer.
Benefits of In-Store Kiosks
If you’re looking to enhance your retail revenue, retail kiosks offer a wide variety of benefits.
Improve Business Efficiency
Self-service retail kiosks deliver a consistent, high-quality user experience that's nonstop, without the need for a vacation, breaks, or flex-time that employees require.
Kiosks drastically reduce the time employees spend providing easily accessible information, answering mundane questions, and facilitating transactions. As a result, they have more time to focus on managing critical responsibilities and improving business practices.
Reduces Business Costs
Self-service retail kiosks require minimal maintenance, which makes them a relatively ready option for your business.
By eliminating the need to employ a large customer service team, you can save money that you’d otherwise have spent on labor -- salary and benefits packages.
Bolsters Job Satisfaction
By eliminating mundane tasks, kiosks improve employee job satisfaction. That’s because they free up time that employees can channel to areas where they can be more useful while operating at peak efficiency. Employees are able to use the skills that they were hired for, rather than spending time on overly simple tasks.
Happier and more efficient employees mean better customer experiences and enhanced business efficacy.
Boosts Sales
Kiosks can help facilitate boosts in sales. Through the use of enticing offers like discounts, packages, and promotions, kiosks help influence customers into buying certain products.
They’re remarkably effective marketing tools that encourage customers to spend more than they likely originally planned to. In turn, kiosks offer a quick return on investment, so you can funnel the remaining cost benefits into your business and improve your bottom line.
Real-time Updates
With kiosks, you can update the channel of communication between you and your customers. For instance, you can announce flash sales or send status updates, and reach your audience rapidly from the convenience of your office.
Collect Customer Behavior Data
Data is critical in today’s ever-changing business climate. You can get more information about your customers’ behaviors from digital kiosks, and use that data to adjust your business models.
The data contains customer trends and habits that can help you improve the buyer experience, market better, offer better services, and ultimately increase sales.
How Different Industries Use Kiosks for Business Success
Kiosks aren't just reserved for retail spaces. Instead, they offer a variety of benefits to businesses in various industries.
Fast Food
Brands like McDonald’s use foodservice kiosks across their locations in the United States in response to demands for fast, efficient service. Panera Bread has also begun using kiosks to take customers’ orders, as have many other fast food and quick service dining locations.
Retail
Retail giants such as Walmart and Target have long used kiosks in many of their stores, allowing customers to order their groceries or clothing online and pick them up in-store. Shoppers are no longer limited to only browsing these stores manually and can access product information easily and quickly, without having to ask an employee for help.
Hospitality and Tourism
Self-service kiosks are also common in the hospitality and tourism industry. For instance, Hotel La Cigale — a Tunisian luxury hotel — added a reception kiosk to its front desk area, to grant guests access, provide directions, and answer customer queries.
Enable New Digital Journeys
A variety of factors, including employee shortages and a desire for low-contact options during the shopping experience, are further driving the demand for self-service retail kiosks. Retailers in a variety of industries can utilize kiosks to cut costs, increase sales, and improve the overall customer experience.
The key is to integrate this mobile pathway into a useful, easy-to-understand way while carefully designing new digitally-enabled customer journeys that will benefit your business and your customers.
At Mason, we take smart dedicated devices from idea to end user. Organizations of all sizes rely on us to bring world's first innovations, fully managed infrastructure, and hundreds of use cases to market.
