Giant experiments with grocery store of the future

As Kiosk Marketplace reports, Giant Food Stores is partnering with Agilysys Inc., St. Clair Interactive Communications Inc., IBM Corp. and Symbol Technologies to build a new 90,000+ square foot grocery store featuring the latest in self-service innovations, including interactive kiosks, personal shopping scanners, and digital signs.

I've yet to see a personal shopping system that I've been impressed with (remember the ZapLink anybody? And what's going on with IBM's Shopping Buddy?), however I'm still hopeful that one of these days somebody will come up with a solution that is both easy-to-use and provides a real value to the consumer. Here's what they have to say about this iteration of the product:

A customer entering the store scans their loyalty card, then picks up one of the handheld units and begins shopping, scanning items as they place them directly into bags in the cart.

"'The idea is that at the point in time that you pick up a product, you scan it with that personal shopper and bag it in the cart,' [Agilysys Director of Sales Aaron] Hagler said. 'The next time you’re supposed to touch that item is literally when you get home.'

Efficiencies in self-checkout might be enough to convince the average shopper, but only time will tell.

Read the full article here.

6 Simple Rules for Successful Self-Service

CIO.com.au Australia's magazine for information executives, is running this article about how to prevent your self-service kiosk project from becoming one of the estimated 15-20% that are doomed to fail :) The six simple rules that they outline include:

• Provide a Benefit to Customers
• Make Transactions Intuitive
• Show Customers What to Do
• Choose the Right Locations
• Beware of Legacy Systems
• Take a Test-Drive

Nothing revolutionary here, and it's certainly not a how-to, but the article does make some excellent points about the shortcomings of many of today's self-service projects. One thing I particularly liked was this list of things to make your kiosk pretty and easy-to-use, courtesy of Francie Mendelsohn, from Summit Research:

• Big buttons. Small touch-screen buttons will foil large fingers.
• Feedback. When you touch a button onscreen, it should "depress" and change colour.
• Readability. Dark text on a light background is the most legible.
• Consistency. Give every touch screen the same look and feel. Even slight deviations can confuse users. Speed. Have enough bandwidth so that users don't have to wait for transactions to be processed.
• Cleanliness. Choose dark-collared kiosk cabinets to hide finger smudges, or use enclosures made of fingerprint-resistant materials.
• Short screens. Customers prefer not to scroll. Clear directions and unambiguous choices. Remember that people are standing up. If it's confusing, they'll walk away.
• Minimal animation. Fancy flashing lights and movement will slow down transactions and annoy customers.
• No annoying sounds. Employees will pull the plug.

KIS to open European kiosk manufacturing facility

From PRNewswire:

Kiosk Information Systems, the leader in self-service kiosk solutions announces the opening of manufacturing facilities in the U.K. Peter Snyder has been appointed Managing Director for the new operations based in Scotland. Snyder will be responsible for establishing and expanding new opportunities within existing and new market segments for Kiosk Information Systems - Europe.

"We currently have a very strong business segment outside the U.S. and with the addition of manufacturing, service and support here in Europe, we expect to accelerate our business in key sectors such as digital media, airlines, gaming and financial services," said Snyder.

Tom Weaver, VP of Sales and Marketing commented, "With the addition of Peter in Europe and our new manufacturing capabilities, we will be able to not only better serve our current customers but also be in position to take advantage of opportunities that exist in the U.K., as well as across all of Europe and the Middle East."

You can find the full release here.

Musicland trying out CD-burning kiosks

I know for a fact that Musicland Group -- owners of Sam Goody, MediaPlay and Suncoast -- have been warily eyeing the CD-burning kiosk market for a while now. Worried about eroding their sales of regular CDs, these devices were largely seen as a costly, complex hassle. However, with the recent success of things like Apple's iTunes, retailers realize that they're going to have to start taking steps to keep people coming into their stores. Thus, Musicland is going to start installed CD-burning machines into many of their stores across the country. As the Modesto Bee notes:

The Minneapolis-based chain includes Sam Goody and Suncoast stores. Willey said more than 20 stores will get stations by year's end at hefty cost of $25,000 each.

The systems are so expensive because of record labels' copyright protections and quality-control restrictions on how the music is stored and burned. Most labels require super-premium blank CDs costing five times the price of a basic blank disc.

Still, more than a dozen small companies have developed CD-burning kiosks.

"It is turning the corner from something that's planned to something that's real," said Bob French, maker of the Mix & Burn technology being used by Musicland. French believes the future is in tossing CD burners and letting customers download songs directly to MP3 players.

But analysts and many other retailers are skeptical.

"There's still too many issues that have got to be solved from an industry perspective, to (get to) where customers can easily access content without having to jump through hoops," said Dave Alder, top marketing officer for Virgin Entertainment Group in North America. "It has to be intuitive, it has to be fun and simple.… The industry isn't ready yet."

You can read the rest of the article here.

Internet and wireless kiosks strong in hospitality

I've never particularly liked the pay-per-use Internet kiosk market, and despite all of the late-night infomercial hype about the space, it's something I've always tried to keep my business away from (with little argument from the staff :) However, apparently it is a profitably niche for some dedicated companies, especially with bundled with the ability to meter out wireless internet connectivity, as Wi-Fi Planet reports:

In the hotly contested hotel space, Wi-Fi vendors are looking beyond the lobby, bar and meeting rooms. They're pitching full-building solutions as an alternative to costly high-speed rewiring jobs, and the idea is gaining traction.

Take, for instance, PayKiosks Internet Terminals. Founded in 2000, the company stayed true to its name for a long time, building up a base of some 300 installed Wi-Fi kiosks in 300 hotels and truckstops. Users pay the typical rates: $4.95 an hour, $8.95 a day and $29.95 a month.

PayKiosks deploys its networks for free on a revenue-sharing basis. McInnes says laptop use is so high these days that he can make the free installations pay even in smaller hotels. "Anything over 100 rooms is definitely a viable location for us," he says. "We have lots of smaller properties that generate several thousand dollars a month in wireless usage."

So there you have it. There's a very nice article with lots of additional information here that you should go read if you're involved in the self-service kiosk or pay-for-use kiosk markets.

Coinstar announces deal with WalMart

Coinstar said that it will install 100 of its self-service coin-counting kiosks in Wal-Mart stores on a test basis in the coming months. While they don't yet have a long-term agreement from the retail giant, shares gained $4.24 to close at $23.47 after the announcement. Seems as though Coinstar's stockholders would really, really like Coinstar to start deploying kiosks to Wal-Mart's 3,000+ US locations.

This quarter the company earned $6.8 million, or 27 cents a share, on sales of $118.7 million, for the third quarter. Excluding items, the company would have earned 30 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected earnings of 28 cents a share on sales of $117 million. A year earlier, Coinstar earned $6.6 million, or 30 cents a share, on sales of $106.4 million," as reported here.

Check-in kiosks continue to gain popularity

Indianapolis airport is undergoing a series of upgrades and additions right now, and as 9news Indianapolis reports, some of those include replacing more check-in counters with interactive kiosks:

When the new passenger terminal at Indianapolis airport opens in 2008, the front lobby will have more room for self-serve ticketing kiosks - and much less space for traditional ticket counters.

Though construction on the $1.1 billion project already has begun, planners are making late design changes to the ticketing hall to accommodate the emergence of the electronic kiosks. Instead of having long walls of counter space, the new terminal will contain four ticketing "islands" in the center of the 150,000-square-foot ticket hall, project director John Kish said.

Initially designed to hold 96 ticket agents, those islands now will feature mostly electronic kiosks, perhaps as many as 150. It remains unclear what the ratio of ticket agents to kiosks will be.

Cited as both a cost-saving and customer service measure (as some carriers including Continental estimate that up to 85% of their passengers check in via kiosks), the airport says that customers are -- perhaps for once -- not upset by changes that reduce the amount of human contact. I don't know about you, but when I get to the airport, I want to get the ticketing/security/check-in process done as quickly as possible, and 95% of the time, I can get everything done quickly and easily at a kiosk. You can't beat that kind of convenience, and it's a welcome improvement at harried and con

More on interactive taxi kiosks

KioskMarketplace is running this article about a new interactive kiosk application in taxis in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, (and supposedly soon in Charlotte and New York City). I've written or posted about a number of articles in the past featuring all sorts of new and unique taxi kiosk or signage applications, and unfortunately most have not worked out very well from a financial standpoint.

Passengers interact with the kiosk via a touchscreen to retrieve up-to-the minute local and national news, sports, weather, local area information and more. A scrolling ticker keeps riders abreast of stock market activity.

"The kiosks are informational and entertaining," said Cory Gottlieb, chief executive officer of Interactive Taxi. "Passengers can use a Yellow Pages-like directory to search for restaurants, nightclubs, movie listings, area attractions, and city resources for free. The systems also are hooked up to the Office of Emergency Management and the Amber Alert System."

Revenue comes from the "advertorial" information supplied by vendors who wish to be listed on the kiosks. The model seems sound enough, and I have to admit that having ridden in a number of cabs staffed by non-English speakers, they certainly could prove useful for providing local information about restaurants, etc., history suggests that these devices will be met with much critical response -- good and bad. In the end, like everything else, the market will decide :)

Finland's Rautakirja integrates new POS and self-service kiosk systems

According to this press release on BusinessWire:

"Retalix(R) Ltd. announced today that Rautakirja, the leading convenience chain in Finland, has selected the Retalix StorePoint(TM) Point of Sale solution and the Retalix Head Office solution, aiming to enhance customer service and to enable sales of new types of products in its R-Kioski stores.

"Rautakirja is the leading convenience chain in Finland, operating approximately 750 kiosks and convenience stores in Finland, with global operations in the Baltics, Czech Republic, Russia, Romania and Germany. Rautakirja plans to install the Retalix solution throughout its Baltic chains.

"The rollout of Retalix StorePoint to the R-Kioski kiosks is in process, and is scheduled to be completed by mid-2006. The Rautakirja project is delivered, implemented and supported by Capgemini in Finland.

"Retalix StorePoint will enable Rautakirja to sell new types of products and electronic services, such as train tickets and loading prepaid phone cards, through POS interfaces with external third party applications. Interfaces for lottery terminals, local travel ticketing, phone card sales and video rental applications have already been implemented."

Group suggests using shopping-cart kiosks...

... among other things. Actually, this article from the Globe and Mail discusses many of the challenges that retail grocers are facing from customers whose busy lives prevent them from making bigger purchases every visit:

"There is an opportunity to do more and reach more consumers," says Rob Persico, strategy development director at Unilever Canada Inc., whose parent commissioned the massive trip-management study.

"If you can make that whole shopping experience easier and less time consuming, they'll come back."

He offers a few suggestions.

Stores should open more express checkout lanes at the hectic predinner period, they should provide small buggies that can pack in more products than a clunky handheld grocery basket -- and forget about charging shoppers 25 cents for a cart.

They should invest in "intelligent" carts with interactive screens that direct shoppers to products and automatically scan items; they should cluster items that go together, such as mayonnaise with lettuce; and they should display prepared meals at the front of the store.

Perisco goes on to make a number of other suggestions, some of which seem more practical (to me) than others, but he shows that the retail marketing industry isn't afraid to get creative or to utilize technology when marketing to customers in-store.

It's quite a good article; I recommend you go read it.

Tesco completes kiosk trial

UK retail giant Tesco has finished a trial of interactive kiosks in its stores that allow customers to order items not stocked in-store, including electrical equipment, books and clothes. There is speculation that it will follow the initiative with a traditional paper catalogue carrying the same items.

A slightly more detailed article can be found here.

Hot Wheels kiosk lets you customize your own car

This is a pretty cool kiosk application, doubly so because I just love FAO Schwarz (which is where they are deployed at):

Designing a car with the Hot Wheels Custom Car Factory Kiosk application takes only a few minutes, and the customer receives a certificate of authenticity with the purchase. The price of a customized Hot Wheels car is approximately $20. Mattel is currently using Planar 17-inch touchscreen monitors for consumer access and server control.

After nearly a year, FAO Schwarz has sold thousands of customized Hot Wheels models using the kiosk.

Since FAO Schwarz (the real one, in Manhattan) has always been something of a technology showcase, making heavy use of motion and interactivity in their product displays and demonstrations, this seems a natural fit. And the fact that they've been selling thousands of the customized cars at what I'm sure are very healthy margins suggests that they were right on the money catering to their customer's interests and imaginations.

The complete story is here, at Kiosk Marketplace.

XBox 360 kiosks pulled from Wal-Mart, then put back in...

Gamespot has been reporting on this story for a few days ago, which basically states that Wal-Mart has pulled out all of the XBox 360 kiosks that were installed to showcase the new gaming console before the holiday spending season began. Rumors have been flying as to why they pulled the kiosks, but the party line is that the 2.4GHz wireless spectrum used by the kiosks were interfering with Wal-Mart's internal wireless system, and that is a big no-no.

After the original story came out, Wal-Mart contacted GameSpot to say that the glitch only affected Wal-Mart stores using an older inventory system. So, supposedly they plan to have "kiosks in 1,200 stores by the first week of November; by mid-November, all Wal-Mart stores should have Xbox 360 kiosks."

You can read the gamespot post here.

Show showcasing self-service seems successful

I'm a fan of alliterations, in case you couldn't tell :)

As the good folks at Kiosk Marketplace are happy to tell us:

[F]rom seminar to show floor, the emphasis was on self-service as a holistic business strategy, rather than one that focused on a specific device. Not that there weren’t plenty of kiosks — and cutting-edge ones at that — but they are increasingly seen as part of an overall strategy rather than the strategy itself.

It’s part of a trend that is taking place outside the show. The kiosks.org association announced at its annual meeting, held during the show at an adjoining hotel, that it would immediately change its name to The Self-Service & Kiosk Association. And Kiosk magazine, published by the show’s host company NetWorld Alliance, will change its name to Self-Service World magazine at the beginning of 2006, with its January/February issue.

Kiosks are a big part of the smart businessman’s team of players. But self-service represents his playbook, his strategy for using that team.

There is a lengthy article featuring blurbs about the sponsors and exhibitors at the show, which apparently there were quite a few of. The Self Service Show 2006 show is slated to take place in Orlando, Feb. 13-14, 2006, which means that we might actually be able to go, since a) it doesn't coincide with our busiest season (Sept - Nov), and b) it's outside of hurricane season, which seems to be getting worse every year...

The full article is here. Go check it out.

Comparing instant photo kiosks to minilabs

Raleigh TV station WRAL is carrying this article about Consumer Reports weighing the pros and cons of instant photo kiosks versus in-store minilabs. They report:

Consumer Reports tested to find out where you can get the best prints. Testers put images onto memory cards and sent them to 15 people around the country.

"They sent them out to different labs and kiosks, and then we collected the images and evaluated them for print quality here," said Kerry Allen of Consumer Reports.

Testers found the stand-alone kiosks that use Fujifilm processing were disappointing. The best results were from Fujifilm minilabs. They consistently returned very good prints. Plus, they cost the least with as little as 17 cents for a 4x6 photo.

If you're looking for good-quality digital prints from a store, Consumer Reports said try a minilab that uses Fujifilm processing. You can find them at many stores, including Costco and Wal-Mart.

Consumer Reports said Kodak is in the midst of converting its minilabs to a process called PerfectTouch, which it has been using with its online printing service. Consumer Reports has found PerfectTouch consistently delivers very good prints.

Click here to view the full article.