Experts at the National Retail Federation conference and the Retail’s Big Ideas Show I have spoken with offer no support for in-store kiosks. I think this is because technology has changed so much and much of what a kiosk was used for in the past can either be transacted from home, mobile or on the POS itself. This is a shift from a few years ago.
While there are kiosks in use, they tend to be out of store and more for lookup like finding a store, checking on for travel or buying event tickets. Or like buying rasors as shown in the photo I took yesterday.
The other reasons kiosks are not a future is because they disrupt the core of your business – if your business has a core focus. And, of course, in retail today we must have a core focus. The days of the general store type newsagency are over. retail has evolved quickly where specialisation and core focus are key.
But back to kiosks. Retail is rapidly moving out of store. More and more that a retail business offers is transacted away from the business. Any investment in kiosk needs to be considered against these trends.