Staples gains incremental store sales with in-store kiosks

With up to six web-based kiosks in each of its 1,200 stores, Staples continues to learn how to make them more useful for customers—for example, a fast-track way to order online but pay for both online and in-store purchases at the store checkout counter, Mike Ragunas, vice president of technology strategy and architecture, tells Internet Retailer.

The payment flexibility is one more feature that is making the kiosks popular with shoppers and adding to overall sales, he says. “It’s been a great program for incremental sales value,” he says.

Staples began installing kiosks for online ordering in all of its stores in 2001, but has continued to seek advice from both store personnel and customers on how to make the kiosks easier to use and more productive in generating sales, Ragunas says.

In addition to letting shoppers either pay at the kiosk or at the store’s POS counter, Staples learned that customers often wanted a faster way to place an online order without having to completely log on with full account information. Under the initial system, the kiosk required customers to enter extensive personal data to place an order whether they wanted to pay at the kiosk or at the POS counter. “So we created a fast-track option for them to just put in basic information like name and shipping address, then print out a barcoded order form to take to the cash register,” Ragunas says. The cashier scans the form’s barcode, he adds.

While encouraging more customers to order at the kiosks and pay at the store counter, the system also helps keep store personnel more directly involved with customers and creates more opportunities for POS clerks to suggest additional sales, Ragunas says.

If a kiosk order is placed with an online credit card payment, the order is immediately sent into the fulfillment system for delivery. But if a customer opts to pay at the store counter, the order is placed on hold within the Staples.com system until payment is made at the POS terminal. Once payment is completed, the store POS system automatically sends a purchase confirmation to the order management system at Staples headquarters to clear the order for shipping, Ragunas says.