Borders to test additional CD mix-and-burn kiosks

Kiosk pilots always make a lot of news (well, in the kiosk industry, anyway), but post-pilot rollouts, which are arguably more important since they suggest the kiosk's business model was validated, are typically less noteworthy for some reason.

So it was good news that InternetRetailer wrote this little article about Borders expanding their use of in-store kiosks. This functionality will either come in the form of new kiosks, or additional functionality on some of their existing kiosks, which are used to do book searches, product wayfinding, etc. As they note:

It’s another effort by Borders to drive increased utility out of its installed base of store kiosks, which [Kevin Ertell, Borders’ director of interactive marketing, loyalty and CRM] says the company is moving to put at the center of any web- or computer-focused communication with customers in its stores. “The mix-and-burn piece would be part of that, as well as being able to look up or locate books in the store,” Ertell says. “We know from our research that there are a lot of customers who want to do these things themselves, so we have that capability for them. And we also have our booksellers available there to help them with anything they may need.”