Retailers with kiosks seek to balance self-service with personal service
Retailers are embracing kiosks, but many stop short of making them fully transactional. The answer to the question of whether to use store kiosks as a cash register or limit them to use as an information source differs widely among merchants. "It depends on their business objectives,” notes Heather Dougherty, digital commerce analyst for Jupiter Media Metrix. “A retailer like Best Buy, for example, may not want a full transactional kiosk. They may want the kiosks as a tool for consumers, because they have a lot of information on a lot of products, but they also want to have a sales associate help you.” In that case, providing the kiosks for customers to use in comparing product specifications but letting the associate complete the sale serves two goals: it reduces some of the information load on store associates while building customer relationships by putting the associate back in the loop to close the sale.
Seattle-based Recreational Equipment Inc., one of the earliest movers in retail store kiosks, offers fully transactional kiosk stations in its stores. “Behind the scenes they’re essentially our online store,” says REI vice president of information services Brad Brown. Making the kiosk transactional helps keep sales within the company versus driving shoppers who don’t find what they want in-store to competitors, the company believes.
But maybe REI’s outdoor enthusiast customers are an exceptionally self-reliant bunch. What about shoppers at the other end of the spectrum – say, luxury goods buyers who expect to receive lots of personal attention along with their new $25,000 Rolex? “Tiffany, for example, wouldn’t want to have sales at kiosks, because they pride themselves on that relationship with customers,” says Dougherty.
Yet when upscale luggage merchant Louis Vuitton put kiosks in its stores purely as a source of information, some shoppers surprised the retailer by attempting to make purchases at kiosk stations. As shoppers become more accustomed to self-service transactions in setting such as banks, ATMs and ticket counters, they’re more likely to look for it everywhere, believes Doug Peter, president of kiosk solutions provider St. Clair Interactive, Toronto. “Our data show that 30% of customers prefer self-service in any situation,” says Peter. “That`s up from 21% nine years ago.”
Back...
