The new era for digital kiosks

Brand marketers have more opportunities to influence consumer shopping behavior than ever, thanks to social media and customer relationship management software. Marketers can create extensive consumer profiles that, combined with artificial intelligence, can target offers that will induce consumers to purchase specific products.

As AI has allowed marketers to better understand customers, the online market has expanded, oftentimes at the expense of physical retail. But physical retail has not disappeared, as consumers still want to touch and see the merchandise before they buy.

Today, marketers are struggling to understand the omnichannel consumer who shops both online and in the physical store. There is no question that interactive kiosks will play an important role in this quest.

Interactive kiosks have emerged as a critical tool to enable both traditional and non-traditional retailers to engage customers in the modern retail marketplace. One reason that kiosks have proven so important is there is great consumer “sympathy” with this form of out-of-home media. The reason for this is simple; consumers see the kiosks as a “big cell phone” where they can access information about products and services.

Today’s consumers are already in the habit of searching their phone before going to a store where they then ask a clerk for additional information. If the store has kiosks, they will naturally go to the kiosk, especially if a clerk isn’t readily available. They see the kiosk as an extension of their personal digital world.

Retailers might even find it pays to install vertical rather than horizontal shaped kiosks, as many consumers will be more likely to see a vertical kiosk as a larger cell phone.

But the in-store kiosk is not the only way consumers are accessing information about retail merchandise. Wayfinding kiosks are also playing a role, directing consumers where to shop when visiting malls and public areas.

Some wayfinding kiosks can detect when a person is in the vicinity and can identify their gender, age, what they are wearing, whether they have makeup, and in seconds display digital coupons for specific products the person can buy in the immediate area, or even an advertisement personalized to the consumers based on the data collected.

Studies have shown that people detection software has increased impulse purchases as much as 16 times inside malls. Today’s consumers want everything “right here” and “right now.”

The kiosk, in addition to assisting consumers in the shopping environment, also provides intelligence about consumers to marketers. A wayfinding kiosk in a public location can gather demographic information about the consumers using the kiosk and provide this data to brand marketers and retailers who then use this data to create offers targeted to consumers based on their demographic characteristics.

Such data, which can be gathered and analyzed without invading the consumer’s privacy, is a tool not only for retailers and marketers, but for urban planners. Partnerships between retailers, marketers and government agencies are key to the rising “smart cities,” where data from kiosks can deliver real-time information to people in ways that make shopping, working and many other human activities more efficient.

There is a huge symbiosis between the public places and retailers, as both are catering to the same audience. There are several business models that can be used to benefit all parties involved. A municipality or a mall can offer advertising real estate for retailers, and as a payback, they can collect tons of demographic information that will help them provide better public transportation, enable them to attract more desirable shops, and increase the quality of public services.

We must to go beyond our short vision about what a kiosk can do for us only. Marketers and retailers must be willing to share information about consumers with government agencies.

The movement has already begun, and the future possibilities are huge. 

For more information access: https://networldmediagroup.com/product/2019-kiosk-marketplace-census-report/