I have been watching the roll out of the Scribbler branded card vending kiosk from Fujifilm in the UK for over a year. I first used the kiosk myself a year ago and I spoke with Fujifilm people at the Spring Fair in Birmingham in 2023.
Now, Fujifilm Australia have confirmed this is coming to Australia.
In the UK, in addition to placement in the popular Scribbler stores, I am told they have these kiosks placed in some university and non retail commercial locations.
The card printed is on bigger paper that is not as thick as a usual card. The selling feature is the range of cards that you may not find in-store.
The hardware costs around $14,000 in Australia and the initial kit of consumables costs around $1,200.
I don’t have visibility of the licence fee or wholesale cost of each card. They are yet to release integrated payment options for Australia.
It will be interesting to see the take up in Australia. In the UK, where I am at the moment, the Scribbler retail network footprint has enabled a broad roll out to educate shoppers. The company does na excellent job promoting the kiosk cards on the front window of its stores.
While time will tell if this is a disruptor in the creating card space, I do think that this is out in the market is good for cards. I also think it especially works with the Scribbler brand because of their 100% humour focus.
There are a few misses in my view:
- The paper stock is not ideal.
- The kiosks I have tried have had some cards that are also in the shop and the kiosk version does not feel as good.
- There is only one size currently from what I can tell.
- The shop has to be open to make the purchase in the Scribbler versions I have seen.
The plusses are:
- The kiosk may broaden card appeal.
- It can make more products available in less space.
- You can write on the card from a keyboard.
While I have no knowledge of specific plans in Australia and no connection whatsoever with this product, I expect we will start to hear more about it soon. I expect they’ll have a stand at one or more trade shows to launch.
The innovation by Scribbler and Fujifilm encourages those of us with greeting cards in our shops to innovate, to appeal to a broader range of people and to encourage people to buy more cards.
For more on the kiosk roll out, there was a story by Printweek and a launch announcement by Fujufilm.