The end of an era. Appears Walmart has decided to pull out of the photo print kiosk business. Kroger did this about 12 months ago. This is a picture from a relatively new Walmart located right near Boulder, Colorado.
PHOTO KIOSK FEATURE – IS THERE A FUTURE IN PHOTO?
PHOTO KIOSKS – GENERATION NEXT ACQUIRES PRINT MATES™
WITH WALLPIXI, PIXILATED LOOKS TO SPREAD PHOTO KIOSKS THAT ANYONE CAN USE – TECHNICAL.LY BALTIMORE
Table of Contents
Editors Note 12/25 – be sure and visit our page on Walmart Self-Checkout. Latest RFID cart checkout similiar to Wegmans being tested.
A commentary by Craig Keefner — Periodically, a “burst” of editorial articles blasting self-checkout appears in the news. We are coming up on Christmas, so no big surprise. Generally, the “headlines” are catchy and play up consumers’ dissatisfaction with retail. In SEO circles, we call it clickbait, and it does, in fact, attract clicks and eyeballs, which ultimately convert into advertiser dollars. The more clickbait, the more that publication is cash-strapped, is one theory. If we sold advertising we would probably do it for that matter. Revenue is the ultimate factor.
We call it pandering to a demographic with objective being clicks. Not much we can do about it.
In her recent article, “Self-Checkout Is a Failed Experiment,” Amanda Mull argues that self-checkout is a failed experiment that is both inconvenient for customers and unprofitable for retailers. She cites a number of reasons for this, including:
While I agree that self-checkout has some flaws, I believe it is too early to call it a failed experiment. Self-checkout technology is still relatively new, and it is constantly improving. Additionally, many retailers are taking steps to address the concerns that Mull raises.
For example, some retailers are installing new self-checkout kiosks that are more reliable and easier to use. Others are offering more assistance to customers who need it, and they are taking steps to reduce theft.
The latest Walmart “ditches” bioptic scanners and is going Lidar and cameras in the footsteps of Amazon Just Walk Out technology.
A quick rebuttal of the “points” in the Atlantic article
Self-checkout also has a number of advantages over traditional checkout lines. For example, self-checkout can help to reduce wait times and improve customer satisfaction. Additionally, self-checkout can give customers more control over their shopping experience.
Here are some of the specific advantages of self-checkout:
Of course, self-checkout is not perfect. However, I believe that it has the potential to be a valuable tool for both customers and retailers. As the technology continues to improve and retailers learn to implement it more effectively, self-checkout is likely to become even more popular and successful.
Here are some suggestions for how retailers can improve the self-checkout experience for customers:
By following these suggestions, retailers can make self-checkout a more convenient and positive experience for customers.
We should note that as far as technology goes, the writer seems to excel at fashion writing and “all things stylish”. She is out of her depth here. All of the “issues” she points to are more opinionated fluff, and not facts. I can go down the line with them. There are drawbacks to SCO but she doesn’t bother to talk about those.
I shop at Costco and many other stores that use SCO machines (Whole Foods, Krogers, Kohls, etc). Personally the Costco SCO option is by far the BEST.
Apparently, that is all this writer (not sure who he is) could only come up with two false negatives for his Costco clickbait article.
Self-checkout is not without issues and you can see that in new iterations being tested by Walmart and others. Some of the major players like NCR are struggling at best and unlikely to revolutionize retail anymore. But new players are emerging to take their place.
Wegmans is highly respected grocer and “smart” . They have a super high loyalty factor and as such can actually charge more for the experience. On a recent trip to Kodak Moments we had the opportunity to visit one of their flagship stores located in Pittsford, NY
Articles (Pandering for the most part)
This is NOT a kiosk
Dec 1, 2022 – New article from Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on inaccessible self-checkouts. Blind people, wheelchair users and others say the design of typical self-service machines prevents them from shopping independently. By Katie Deighton — we continue to see major media taking the “increase our viewership” tactic by less than accurate article critical of self-checkout. Latest example is the Guardian article on “not living up to promise” [thanks Ross Tocher].
Update: See our post on another article by by Food Institute. Includes comments from Toshiba, Storm Interface and also Kiosk Association. One distinction that we like to make is that self-checkout at grocery stores is closely aligned with Point Toshiba kiosk of Sale terminals and in fact are truly just hybrid customer-facing POS terminals or platforms.
This is a kiosk
You can see on the Toshiba site how they categorize their self-service offerings with three iterations one of which is what we call a standup kiosk. The “warts” which are the POS terminals attached to these are almost always the complicating factor. Money transfers have that effect. We are impressed with Toshiba responding. You might think NCR would respond but probably they have their hands full right now in the middle of their reorganization of retail and financial divisions (the financial division being banks and ATMs generally).
grocery store self-checkout
Summary In Brief
McDonalds in an airport. Are these employee assisted? Look like standard Verifone terminals.
NFB Hackert recommends headphone jack, screen-reader sw and tactile keyboard
Note the distance reach to POS terminal. Click for full size
Our Take?
Note all the merchandising at foot level. This is Kroger which is Toshiba. Click for full size
Those same POS devices which are used in unattended are most times not certified by PCI SSC for unattended cardholder data (aka CAT or Cardholder Activated Transaction). The large retail chains want economies of use by using the same device across attended and unattended and figuratively “twist the arm” of the POS provider to provide conditional exceptions on liabilities. That reduces provisioning costs and service costs for them.
AT&T PAYMENT KIOSK
Blind people can have trouble navigating the touchscreens. Deaf people might not be able to troubleshoot on kiosks that connect to a customer-service worker located somewhere else. And wheelchair users sometimes can’t reach or see the screens, or fit their chairs comfortably in the space allocated to each checkout.
“Why should I have less choice on how I check out my shopping just because I have one leg and I’m in a wheelchair?” said Lyndsay Watterson, an above-the-knee amputee who lives in the U.K. and has founded Neo Walk, a maker of fashion-forward walking sticks.
Self-Checkout – click for full size
“I don’t want to go to a staffed checkout because I’m still vulnerable to catching infections, and I don’t want someone else handling my stuff,” she said. “[Self-checkout] just cuts out that extra person that you’ve got to interact with.”
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We shop at Whole Foods from time to time. Part of our Costco-WholeFoods equation. Seemed like a good time to “check out” the SCO there and the return lockers. We have also added some video from Marks and Spencers grocery checkout which illustrates a common problem with touchscreens. For more on SCOs see our Lowes post which includes Target Stores and Home Depot.
That NCR SCO is a really poor example of how to tackle accessibility, isn’t it??! If I had a ‘rogues gallery’ of horribly designed SCOs, I’d be adding that to it. I saw KIS’s returns kiosk at the NRF Show and it looked really slick, I must start looking out for them. I haven’t been to a Whole Foods for a while, but maybe I’ll stop by one when I’m out and about at the weekend.
Whole Food Self-Check Out SCO
click for full size – amazon drop off locker
Related Posts
Accessibility and Marks & Spencers
Touchscreen Cleaning
Here is a good example of how useless antimicrobial coatings are. And our guess is that over 90% of all touchscreen touches are made actually by employees.
Kroger Deli
Would you believe it if I told you?
bad ada
Each year Intouch Insight along with QSR magazine do their analysis of QSR drive-thrus to see who is getting faster and who is getting slower.
Drive-Thru utilizes a number of technologies including:
Takeaways
Click for full size Drive Thru Inaccuracy
Excerpt:
The use of suggestive selling is another sorely underutilized tactic among quick serve restaurants. The study shows that this tactic is being used less than half of the time, and with great inconsistency across brands. And although contrary to popular belief, orders are 24 seconds faster with a suggestive sell, dispelling the myth that suggestive selling adds time. Brands who frequently use suggestive selling, like Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s and KFC are also among the top five brands when it comes to total fastest time.
Every year, Intouch Insight produces a drive-thru study, analyzing the top fast food chains across the aforementioned categories. Their results are based on reviews of more than 1,500 drive-thrus belonging to 10 different brands: Arby’s, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Chick-fil-A, Dunkin’, Hardee’s, KFC, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s.
In terms of accuracy, meaning your main entree, side, drink, and special requests are perfect, Arby’s and McDonald’s tied for the top spot with both getting orders right 89% of the time. They knocked out Chick-fil-A, which had the highest accuracy in 2020 and 2021, but dipped to a seventh-place ranking with 83% accuracy. Wendy’s had the lowest accuracy score at 79%.
Here is the full study in PDF format
Resource links
Related Posts
From menus curated to individuals’ dietary needs to offers that adjust in real time to trends and even weather patterns, here’s how top food names like Sonic and THE.FIT are using AI to enable tailored food experiences
Today’s consumers have more food options than ever. The ordering experience is incredibly important, and a good one can keep customers coming back time and time again. To help guests navigate drive-thru menus, companies like Sonic, McDonalds, and THE.FIT have incorporated AI into their ordering to create a seamless transaction.
Taken from PSFK’s Food Service Debrief report, take a look at how these innovators have redesigned ordering to offer personalization and enhanced convenience:
Sonic, Mastercard and ZIVELO
Global payment company Mastercard has partnered with self-service kiosk technology provider ZIVELO to trial AI-based voice ordering at select locations of the drive-in chain Sonic. At the restaurant, guests place their orders with an AI-powered voice assistant, while an integrated digital menu display can be customized in real time, taking into account context, like weather, time of day, season and location, as well as specific customer preferences. The system aims to streamline repeat orders and use data to offer personalized suggestions and loyalty rewards that are more relevant.
In Brief
McDonald’s Kiosk ADA via Storm Interface audionav
Follow Up 10/18 — from Wall Street Journal
“Initiatives to improve accessibility to products and information for those with disabilities or impairments should be recognized and applauded”, say Storm Interface.
Storm Interface, manufacturers of the AudioNav system interface, are working with McDonald’s to accelerate improvements in the accessibility of McDonald’s restaurant kiosks. McDonald’s was recently recognized by the National Federation of the Blind for its achievements in accessibility. Storm are pleased to have had an opportunity to work with McDonald’s delivering an effective audible and tactile customer interface.
“From the first meeting it was clear that the McDonald’s team had recognized the challenges faced by those who could not see, read or interact with a touchscreen” said Peter Jarvis SEVP at Storm Interface. “We were (and remain) impressed by their willingness to explore and implement new ideas and new technologies. Storm are delighted that the AudioNav device was chosen by McDonald’s to provide the integrated audio connection and tactile interface for navigation of restaurant menu options.”
“Inclusion is at the core of our values,” said Kelsey Hall, Senior Manager of Global Digital Accessibility at McDonald’s. “Implementing new options for our customers to be able to order independently is vitally important to ensuring the restaurant experience is accessible for everyone.”
Storm Interface’s AudioNav device is currently being deployed to McDonald’s corporate owned stores and select franchise locations across the US.
Background Information:
About Storm Interface
For more than 35 years Storm Interface have designed and manufactured secure, rugged and reliable keypads, keyboards and interface devices. Storm products are built to withstand rough use and abuse in unattended public-use and industrial applications. Storm Assistive Technology Products are recognized by the Royal National Institute of Blind People under their ‘RNIB Tried and Tested’ program.
https://www.storm-interface.com
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November 2017 — McDonald’s on Thursday announced a bold plan to roll out its “restaurant of the future” concept to Chicago and other big U.S. cities.
Source: www.chicagotribune.com
Here is video of Just For You
McDonalds Restaurant Kiosk Switzerland
On Thursday, McDonald’s announced that it would expand the service to all 14,000 of its American restaurants.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
McDonald’s Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook, speaking at a McDonald’s in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood on Thursday, said the company has long expected customers to adapt to its business model of ordering at the counter and then waiting to collect their own food. Now, he said, “we’re adapting our business around customers.”
The Journal also reports that “test runs at more than 500 restaurants…showed an increase in foot traffic and contributed to a mid-single-digit percentage increase in restaurant sales, lifting the $5 to $6 average check by $1, on average.” Customer satisfaction scores also increased “because families, in particular, appreciate having their food brought to them.” (The company also announced rollout of a new mobile order-and-pay app, which would allow customers to order and pay for food from their smartphones.)
Inc. article on McDonalds 11/21/16
The cost of installing kiosks is between $50,000 and $60,000 and the company is willing to help with money or financing, McDonald’s executives said. Eastbrook has said that equipment is not expected to reduce the number of workers in restaurants, since traditional order takers would be redeployed to help customers learn to operate kiosks and to deliver food to tables.
Demonstrating returns is key to convincing franchisees to make the switch, executives said. In a video, one UK executive said sales grew 8 percent in downtown London as a result of the initiative.
McDonalds Drive Thru photo courtesy McDonalds
During recent COVID months, Evoke Creative and McDonalds self-serve has been busy developing and manufacturing over 2,000 new drive-thru car side kiosks and digital order confirmation screens for McDonald’s self-serve kiosks for customers.
With drive-thru seeing an obvious surge in popularity, is this now the blueprint for all out of town QSRs?
Fantastic to be working again with McDonalds on their latest Drive-Thru deployment. A huge part of their future business strategy and a massive benefit for their customers during this past year. — Dean Ward Founder of Evoke Creative
Excerpt from Wired The Future of McDonald’s Is in the Drive-Thru Lane
Today at the company’s first investor update in three years, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski detailed a new long-term growth strategy that hinges in large part on machine learning and mobile software. That might sound strange for a company known more for its burgers than its bitrates. But given its recent investments—including its $300 million acquisition of “decision engine” Dynamic Yield last year—the Golden Arches can lay a convincing claim that it’s as much a tech company as anything else. And given its quick-service ubiquity, where it goes the whole industry will likely follow.
The dramatic changes wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic have made that transformation all the more critical. By mid-April, 97 percent of restaurants in the United States weren’t permitted to host in-person dining, according to market research company NPD Group. That makes the drive-thru—where 70 percent of McDonald’s sales have taken place during the Covid-19 pandemic globally in top markets—existentially important.
It’s no surprise that at McDonald’s, we’ve got a thing for Drive Thru. After all, that’s what happens when you have over 25,000 of them worldwide—the most of any restaurant company in the world. And when you know Drive Thru like we do, you can’t help but ask yourself: what should the future look like?
Already, we’re welcoming a new generation of customers. One that expects more features and convenience than ever before. Lucky for us, we know our strengths, and as we step toward the future we’re doubling down on each of them.
Because what our customers love about McDonald’s isn’t just the food or coffee with a smile on the side, it’s the speed, simplicity and consistency of their entire experience. Our desire to innovate starts here: By using new technologies to revolutionize the way customers pick up their food.
Here are some amazing Drive Thru concepts and initiatives we’re excited to be testing:
• Easy Ordering and Payment ID: We’ve been cooking up ways to make the ordering process easier and more streamlined with automated ordering and payments made by identifying customers at the display screen.
• Express Pick Up: New technology will alert crew to prep orders when customers are nearby, while dedicated parking spaces ensure fast pick up.
• Express Drive Thru: A new lane lets customers using the app skip the line and get their food even faster (that means less time waiting and more time enjoying delicious, hotter food).
• On-the-Go: A smaller restaurant footprint would focus exclusively on efficiency, featuring Drive Thru, takeaway, and delivery with limited or no dine-in seating.
Growth comes through innovation. After looking at both the landscape and our customer, we’re once leaping even further ahead by obsessing over what works best for everyday McDonald’s customers: speed, convenience, and ease.
Put it all together and you’ve got a McDonald’s experience made with the future in mind. One we hope reaches more than 10,000 restaurants worldwide and offers countless more opportunities for customers to have the experiences they know and love. Experiences we believe could be truly transformative.
At McDonald’s, we’ve been setting the standard for Drive Thrus for more than 45 years. We’re always testing new ideas, learning what our customers love, and exploring ideas that make the McDonald’s Drive Thru experience faster and easier for everyone. Stay tuned.
Click image for video
Self-serve kiosks are making their debut in the fast food industry! The recently renovated 10th Ave. McDonald’s here in Great Falls has just added self-serving kiosks to their menu. Instead of 3 places to order, there are now 8 in the newly designed restaurant.
In an effort to offer a better guest experience, McDonald’s is allowing their customers to have the opportunity of ordering everything themselves.
The staff that was once stuck behind the counter, are now making the experience more personable by helping out on the floor.
For many, the new service is great!
The good news is that these self-serving kiosks won’t be taking jobs away from the fast food industry any time soon. In fact, they’ve created some!
The new kiosks have allowed the opportunity for labor to be directed elsewhere, such as in the kitchen or helping customers on the floor.
One of these new positions is known as GEL, or Guest Experience Lead. This position is designed to help customers understand the new kiosk and order process.
It’s also important to note the new self-serving kiosks are just an option You can still order your meal the traditional way or through the drive-thru.
Overall these kiosks have drastically helped with efficiency and customer interaction.
COMMENTS
Craig Keefner That may be McDonald specific. Paneras process was to first upgrade the kitchens to ensure the higher order level would be met. I haven’t seen anything from McDonalds on expanded kitchen throughput. The kiosks though are desired particularly at the “burst” point so that when the counters are busy, you can still order quickly. Obviously they have some work to do but they may see it as a good problem. Thanks Eunice!
Reprinted with permission in full from CNBC May 2019 & Amelie Lucas
On Thursday, McDonald’s opened a new flagship store in Times Square, expected to be its busiest in the U.S.
The location showcases the modern updates that McDonald’s has been bringing to its U.S. stores. It boasts digital menu boards, 18 self-order kiosks and wireless mobile charging stations at tables.
The high-tech upgrades are part of its strategy to drive sales by bringing customers back to its stores. The renovations are meant to improve convenience for the customer and modernize the look of the restaurants.
McDonald’s originally scheduled all U.S. store renovations to be complete in 2020 but pushed the deadline back to 2022. In 2018, McDonald’s spent $1.4 billion to remodel around 4,500 restaurants. This year, spending is expected to drop to about $1 billion to upgrade 2,000 locations.
On its first-quarter earnings call, executives said that it is finally seeing a “net positive impact” from store renovations that made up for the necessary store closures.
Here’s a look at the new flagship store:
Comment by Frieder Hansen CEO of Pyramid.de — Congrats McDonalds: Today Grand Opening NYC Times Square wonderful McDonalds restaurant and 18 polytouch 32“ kiosks are ready to take orders. In close neighborhood, at AMC Theatre Times Square there are 16 polytouch 24“ units, selling cinema tickets since 2 years. Design, performance and reliability makes the difference.
When customers enter the location, the sight of self-order kiosks greet them. Employees are also available to take orders and payment.
Times Square sees about 50 million visitors annually. In anticipation of such high demand, McDonald’s has three floors — and plenty of seating.
On the second floor, self-order kiosks are also available to order any forgotten items.
The interior’s modern, simple look is meant to contrast with the flashing billboards and bustle outside in Times Square, according to Max Carmona, McDonald’s senior director of global design and development. Its glass exterior gives customers a great view of that activity.
YVR’s Innovative Travel Solutions becomes first to pilot
kiosk-based border control solution in the Schengen Area
Iceland airport pilots four BorderXpress kiosks to enhance security and efficiency in preparation for the new EU Entry/Exit System
Richmond, B.C. June 24, 2019: Today, Innovative Travel Solutions (ITS) by Vancouver International Airport announced the implementation of four BorderXpresskiosks at Keflavik International Airport (KEF) in Iceland. The kiosks are part of a six-month pilot to simulate the impending requirements of the Entry/Exit System (EES) of the Schengen Area, which comprises 26 European states that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. This is a landmark day for both the industry and ITS as they bring their proven expertise in kiosk design and experience as an airport operator to Europe with their end-to-end border control solution, BorderXpress. This is the first automated kiosk-based border control solution in a Schengen member state.
“We recognize the complexity and challenges that many Schengen member states face with the implementation of new regulation for entry and exit border control. Kiosk-based solutions, like BorderXpress, have a critical role to play in helping Schengen member states effectively fulfil the new security and data collection requirements outlined by the European Commission, while also keeping pace with increasing demand for air travel,” says Craig Richmond, President and CEO, Vancouver Airport Authority. “Isavia and the Icelandic Police have shown tremendous leadership in preparing for the new regulations and recognizing the importance of future-proofing their airport with a customizable and adaptable solution like BorderXpress.”
The EES is a part of the Smart Border package introduced by the European Commission. It will be fully operational in all the Schengen countries by the end of 2021. The main purpose of the EES is to register data on entry, exit and refusal of entry of third country nationals crossing the external borders of all Schengen member states through a central system.
“As an airport operator ourselves, we have a unique understanding of the challenges airports in Europe are facing. Our demonstrated success as a trusted partner in over 43 airport and seaport locations globally ensures that we are positioned to guide airports and governments as they prepare for EES,” says Chris Gilliland, Director, Innovative Travel Solutions. “We are confident that our pilot program with Isavia at Keflavik Airport will further demonstrate the adaptability and effectiveness of BorderXpress, making a meaningful impact on travellers, border control authorities and the airport, alike.”
Isavia operates all airports in Iceland, including KEF, which is the largest border crossing point in the country with more than 95 per cent of the passengers entering the Schengen area through Iceland coming through this airport. The BorderXpress kiosks are available for Third Country Nationals (TCN) and EU citizens to use when entering Iceland. The kiosks have been customized to meet specific requirements of the Icelandic police.
“We at Isavia are always looking for ways to enhance and improve self-service automation for our passengers,“ says Gudmundur Dadi Runarsson, Technical and Infrastructure Director at Keflavik Airport. “By running a pilot for this new and innovative solution we want to gather information and prepare ourselves to make the process easier for everyone when the new regulations are implemented. These new kiosks will help to speed up the process for passengers, improve their experience and ensure an enjoyable journey through Keflavik Airport and will provide important information for the development and operation of our new border facility expected to come into use in 2022.”
In July 2018, BorderXpress became the first permanent kiosks to provide Entry and Exit border control in Europe with the launch of 74 biometric-enabled kiosks at Pafos International Airport and Larnaka International Airport in Cyprus.
BorderXpress uses self-service biometric-enabled kiosks to expedite the border control process. At the kiosk, travellers select their language, scan their travel documents and answer a few simple questions. The kiosk also captures an image of each passenger’s face which can be compared with and verified against the photo in their electronic passport. Travellers then take their completed kiosk receipt to a border services authority.
BorderXpress kiosks are proven to reduce passenger wait times by more than 60 per cent. In a recently published White Paper by InterVISTAS, the study concluded that the use of kiosks for border control significantly outperforms traditional immigration processing with a border officer. This results in cost and space savings and allows border authorities to focus on maintaining the safety of the border. BorderXpress provides better exception handling, is fully accessible to persons with disabilities, and can be configured with up to 35 different languages. It can process any passenger, including families travelling as a group.
BorderXpress technology was developed by ITS, an independent business unit within Vancouver International Airport (YVR), named Best Airport in North Americafor 10 consecutive years. ITS specializes in delivering industry-leading travel technology to transform the traveller’s experience. Since 2009, ITS has sold over 1,600 kiosks at 43 airport and seaport locations around the world, helping more than 250 million passengers clear the border safely and securely.
-YVR-
About Innovative Travel Solutions by Vancouver International Airport
Innovative Travel Solutions (ITS) is the innovation team at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), voted North America’s Best Airport for 10 straight years by Skytrax World Airport Awards. In 2009, the innovation team implemented BorderXpress at Vancouver International Airport and soon discovered that other airports and governments might also want the ability to reduce wait times and increase their international arrivals traffic without having to add additional space or staffing resources. As of May 2019, BorderXpress has processed more than 250 million passengers at 43 airport, seaport and onboard sites around the world and has sold over 1,600 kiosks. In 2018, the team at ITS set their sights on the next innovation in the evolution of the passenger experience with the launch of CheckitXpress, the world’s most accessible, efficient and intuitive self-service bag drop. CheckitXpress improves ease of use for travellers regardless of age, digital fluency, language or mobility, and is the result of a collaboration between YVR and Glidepath, one of the world’s leaders in airport baggage handling. innovativetravelsolutions.ca
For further information:
YVR Media Relations
604.880.9815
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Responding to strong, accelerating market growth with fresh leadership, new products and long-range marketing and manufacturing strategies
FREDERICK, Md., June 4, 2019 – Kiosk Group Inc. (KGI) has announced the appointment of Karla Guarino as Director, Sales & Marketing. Ms. Guarino’s assignment is the latest of several strategic steps designed to grow the company to better serve the rapidly-expanding global market for interactive kiosks and related software.
Ms. Guarino will be responsible for top-line growth, expanding into new markets with interactive touchscreens, software and remote kiosk management. “Karla’s stellar reputation across the industry is strategically wide and tactically deep,” said Mike James, KGI’s founder and chief engineer.
Privately-held KGI develops and markets a wide range of solutions for hundreds of customers. Kiosk Marketplace Census Report values the global market at $9.22 billion (2018) with a compound average growth rate approaching 18%.
In response, KGI President Alan Mischler said “We are executing an aggressive effort to launch new kiosk enclosure designs, increase manufacturing, boost customer responsiveness and re-invent marketing. Karla Guarino is being armed with the best solutions our industry has to offer. She brings a blue-ribbon resume. We are indeed fortunate to have her guiding the marketing and sales challenge.”
Ms. Guarino said “Mike James is a creative visionary for iPad and Android tablet enclosure technology. These products have set engineering and design standards. Coupled with Alan Mischler’s manufacturing and management leadership, I plan to quickly build market share and open new markets for interactive touchscreens in static and mobile applications.”
An early priority is improved market recognition for KGI’s extensive catalog. “I’m turning our website into an interactive marketing, sales and customer education center and plan to develop dynamic outreach to customers and the media,” Guarino said. “And I’m encouraging new product development for smaller tablet-based terminals as well as mobile software to enable our customers to put interactive kiosk technology at the fingertips and in the palms of the world’s rapidly-growing base of digital consumers.”
Karla Guarino Kiosk Group New VP
For nearly 15 years at Kiosk Information Systems, Karla mastered virtually every marketing and sales challenge, adding product development and strategic partnerships to an impressive sales record ($37M in 2007). Gaining broad industry experience through executive assignments with Zivelo, 8Speed8, Jane and Meridian Kiosks, Karla became a senior industry consultant last year as founder and CEO of Kiosk Mentor LLC. Recently, Kiosk Group’s Mike James and Alan Mischler convinced Karla to apply her knowledge and leadership to the well-financed challenge of propelling Kiosk Group to pinnacle status.
One of the first companies to pioneer the tablet kiosk marketplace, Kiosk Group has compiled 30 years of design/manufacturing innovation serving hundreds of industry and government customers. Founder Mike James was first to develop iPad technology for kiosk service. KGI’s exceptionally popular software development browser package (Kiosk PRO) is available via the iTunes store. Today, KGI is an innovation leader for Android, iPad and Windows kiosk enclosure solutions. Privately held, KGI is headquartered in Frederick, MD. For more information, visit KioskGroup.com.
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Original article by Elliot Maras published on KioskMarketplace May 2019
The self-service drumbeat rattled Chicago’s McCormick Place last week as attendees swarmed exhibits promising faster customer service. This year’s National Restaurant Show showcased even more interactive kiosks (39 exhibitors) than last year’s record-breaking 36 exhibitors. Less than a third of this year’s companies (11 exhibitors) were repeats from last year, indicating the market continues to attract new interest.
Kiosk hardware and software manufacturers have heeded the call from restaurants looking to automate the customer order to deliver a more satisfying guest experience, boost sales and make more efficient use of store labor. And while established kiosk providers were once again well represented on the trade show floor, restaurant POS software companies have also entered the fray in a big way.
Once again, many of the kiosks on display integrate with other front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house touchpoints, such as online ordering, mobile ordering, loyalty rewards, customer messaging, order delivery, ingredient and nutrient content, kitchen display systems, inventory management, labor management and more. Foodservice operators have clearly recognized interactive kiosks as one part of a customer experience ecosystem rather than an isolated guest interface.
And while self-order kiosks dominated the presentations, artificial intelligence is allowing additional capabilities such as allergen lookup and guest location.
Highlights of KI Sponsors
Pyramid Computer GmbH presented its Pyramid Location System that saves guests from having to wait in line after placing their order. The customer can order and pay at the self-order kiosk, which dispenses a puck. The customer then places the puck on the bar and chooses a seat while their order is prepared. The system will recognize their location when their order is ready, allowing a server to serve the customer accurately at their table. The system was presented in the Intel booth.
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| Larry Kron of Pyramid Computer GmbH demonstrates the Pyramid Location System kiosk at the Intel booth. |
Zivelo LLC presented a prototype of its X2 Slim kiosk which offers a larger screen size compared to pole-mounted tablets without taking up too much counter width. There is also an X2 Extended model that takes up the same amount of counter width but has a deeper component door to allow for additional components such as a printer.
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| Mike Moon presents a prototype of the X2 Slim kiosk. |
Frank Mayer and Associates Inc. demonstrated a self-order kiosk the company designed for a food truck using KioWare POS software. The software works on Windows and Android, and features browser lockdown. The customizable and EMV-compliant kiosk was demonstrated in the ADUSA Inc.booth.
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| David Anzia of Frank Mayer and Associates Inc. presents a food truck self-order kiosk in the ADUSA booth. |
Appetize presented its Interact kiosk which is part of a comprehensive POS, inventory and analytics package. The company’s kiosk line includes an Android-based solution, 15- and 20-inch landscape touchscreen options, countertop and freestanding models, and support for barcode scanners, printers and payment devices.
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| Jeff Brown presents the Appetize Interact kiosk. |
Highlighted companies included:
Read entire article on KioskMarketplace
Originally published on LinkedIn May 16, 2019
Shiv Sundar Founder | Esper.io San Francisco Bay Area
Wherever you go today, whether Starbucks or Taco-Bell, screens are in – touchscreens that is. More than likely your fingers will interact with a digital device at some point, whether swiping a tablet to pay a bill or signing a receipt or else ordering your favorite espresso on a kiosk.
And thanks to the flurry of new cashierless checkout technologies like Amazon Go, waiting in a grocery store checkout line like it’s 1976 will soon be a thing of the past. Just scan your smartphone to enter the store and you’re good to go.
But while all of this new technology is a great thing, it also creates plenty of corporate challenges. Unfortunately, one of the tradeoffs has been a sharp rise in hackers and cyber-attacks in recent years. Retailers today are more vulnerable than ever to phishing, malware, and other infiltrations that can steal millions of financial records in no time.
That’s why it is more incumbent than ever for you to pay attention to your customer endpoints in a secure, seamless way that boosts customer confidence and avoids disasters like data breaches and lost financial information?
Below are 5 best practices, lessons learned, and security tips that will help ensure your retail management and security strategy is “scan and go” ready.
The two major focus areas that often are not stressed enough by enterprises are device management and security. Let’s face it, everyone likes all the new shiny objects, but getting down to brass tacks about securing the devices isn’t always as popular. A recent report by technology advisory firm IDC says that greater than 40% of U.S. enterprises say they’ve had a data loss issue in the last 12-18 months.
To survive in today’s high-stakes retail race means providing your customers with a Device management fleet solution that delivers seamless, secure, and elegant customer experiences. Device security is more important than ever. Doing so will save countless headaches, protect your corporate assets, not to mention save your company millions of dollars in legal fees.
It seems like every time we turn around today, we’re hearing about another major data breach. In fact, some of the most popular companies have been the target of hackers in recent years. Chipotle, Equifax, and Uber were attacked in 2017. And Chili’s, the well-known food chain, believes that in the spring of 2018 malware was used in its restaurant payment systems to gather credit and debit card information.
The message should be clear – if major corporations fall victim to major data breaches, then no one is immune. Retail devices such as digital tablets, POS, and kiosks are especially vulnerable as they are the conduit for millions of shoppers’ names, addresses, emails, credit cards, passwords, or other personal and financial information.
Who can also forget the Target Corporation data breach of 2013? That debacle ended in the theft of 40 million card numbers and 70 million personal records. The breach started after a third-party vendor was attacked through a phishing virus. Since the vendor had access to Target’s Ariba external billing system, and since Target had poor network segmentation, the hackers were able to easily gain unlawful entry to Target’s entire system.
Let’s face it, the likelihood exists that any honest enterprise is not going to be completely satisfied with their current state on security and device management. But the honest truth is that retailers need to manage and secure their device fleet to achieve full operational efficiency, protect assets, and preserve peace of mind. Today, it goes without saying that that every bit of hardware and software in retail devices must be fully compliant with the most stringent security measures.
To ensure that your device fleet (kiosks, smartphones, POS, etc.) is fully protected and compliant against cyber-attacks or malware, the following steps should be taken into account by any serious enterprise today.
Regular compliance checks and updates are critical for ensuring that all software is free of malicious code or malware that can infiltrate the enterprise infrastructure.
Any type of unsecured manufacturing process is going to create another entry point for criminals to introduce unauthorized code into production runs. Therefore, ensuring strict protocols starts with hardware security modules (HSM’s) and other digital certificates to ensure full code authenticity.
Code signing is a critical part of affirming the efficacy of your source code and scripts. Make sure that it comes with the use of a cryptographic hash to validate authenticity and integrity.
Secure boot is designed to protect your devices against malicious code by ensuring only authenticated software runs on it. Secure boot goes hand in hand with chain of trust and is an integral part of any data management and security strategy.
By including encryption key management with other data protection measures, companies will be able to manage the primary steps involved with protecting, storing, and backing-up their mobile device fleet.
Developers building applications for Dedicated Devices need a platform that will allow them to efficiently and securely create, deploy, and manage Dedicated Devices at scale. Current solutions are meant for managing user-centric enterprise devices and do not address the unique needs of Dedicated Device fleets.
Esper is a platform for developers to deploy applications seamlessly and move beyond standard management tools to securely Orchestrate their Dedicated Devices in the field. We are focused on developers by taking an API-centric, language-neutral approach. Our tools enable developers to tackle the big challenges of Dedicated Device development such as identifying, debugging and resolving issues with their apps and devices in the field.
We streamline the process for building, deploying and managing apps on Dedicated Devices for POS, Restaurants, Kiosks, Logistics, and Transportation at scale. But Esper can be applied however you need it for unique Dedicated Device fleet solutions.
For more information contact Esper
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Andrew Savala – highly respected kiosk consultant and tech entrepreneur Fresno, California
Customers don’t always behave as we would expect when using our kiosks. In the context of software, this is referred to as the “happy path” where everything goes according to plan.
As kiosk software developers we also must plan for what we’ll refer to as the “sad path.” This is when the customer deviates from the expected behavior.
In this article we’re going to be covering the case where the customer walks away from our kiosk in the middle of their transaction. Obviously, we don’t want the next customer to continue where the previous customer left off. The new customer needs a fresh start and it would be confusing if they walked up and the kiosk is in the middle of a transaction.
Let’s start by first talking about why customers might abandon their kiosk transaction. Why do customers abandon their transaction? The list of reasons could potentially be endless, let’s just cover a few common ones…
I could keep going, but you get the point. As developers we need to be prepared for the inevitable case where the customer will abandon their transaction, because life happens.
The most obvious solution would be to start a timer when the kiosk is idle and if the timer expires we just restart the kiosk workflow by redirecting the customer to the kiosk attract screen. Any time the customer interacts with the kiosk, the kiosk idle timer would get reset. It would also be a good idea to prompt the user with a dialog asking if they’re still there before restarting the workflow. Something like, “Are you still there? Your order will be cancelled in 30 seconds.”
To put this in layman's terms, if the kiosk is idle for too long, we’ll simply start over. Pretty easy to understand right?
Restarting the kiosk workflow will work fine in most scenarios, but it might not work in every scenario. For example, what if the customer is inserting cash and they’re digging around in their wallet for another bill? Restarting the kiosk workflow could cause them to “lose their money”, which will result in some pretty irate customers. In the next section we’re going to cover what to do when we can’t just start over.
We’ve covered the scenario where we can just restart the kiosk workflow using an idle timeout. Now let’s talk about what to do when starting over is problematic. Imagine the scenario where our kiosk accepts cash but has no ability to dispense change. Once the customer inserts their cash, there’s no spitting it back out, so we have to move forward.
Now you might ask, “why not just install a cash dispenser?” Well for one, it would raise the cost of our kiosk and for the sake of this example let’s just pretend dispensing cash in not an option.
For our example, let’s assume the customer is paying their cell phone bill at our kiosk and they owe $100. They approach the kiosk, search for their bill and start inserting cash. But when they’ve inserted $80, they realize they don’t have enough cash to complete their transaction. What should we do in the case where they’ve inserted some of their money, but don’t have enough cash to complete their transaction? Remember, dispensing the cash they’ve already inserted is out of the question because our kiosk doesn’t have a cash dispenser.
In this case, the answer is to give the customer a partial credit.
Giving partial credit Going back to our cell phone kiosk example, the answer would be to apply the $80 to the customer’s account as a partial credit. Should we just apply the partial credit and start over using our idle timeout? Eventually yes, but since the customer is inserting cash, we should give them some extra time and fair warning in the
form of a popup dialog.
Another consideration is what if the next customer approaches the kiosk before the idle timeout has completed. We wouldn’t want the next customer to be able to go back and search for their own bill and apply the $80 credit.
Therefore, it’s imperative that once cash is inserted, the customer cannot navigate backwards and search for another bill. By locking the credit to the original bill, we ensure that even if the customer walks away, the next customer cannot “steal” their credit. The worst they can do is either complete the transaction or wait for the idle timer to expire. Either way, the original customer gets the credit.
The temptation as developers is to focus on the happy path and assume that our customers will use the kiosk just as we would. But you can see from this example that’s a pipe dream. Anytime we’re designing a new feature it’s important to think through what could go wrong (the sad path) and how we might mitigate that. Keep in mind there’s always a point where self-service is not the answer and you just have to get a person involved. We can maximize the effectiveness of self-service by planning for the worst and thinking ahead.
Francie Mendelsohn is President of Summit Research Associates, Inc.
Every so often, industry veteran Francie Mendelsohn tests kiosks that she previously evaluated several years ago to see if they are still useful, operational and, most-importantly—enjoying popularity among the establishment’s customers. This time, she paid a return visit to Home Depot.
Years after initially installing self-checkout kiosks, Home Depot has replaced them and deployed new-and-improved kiosks at their megastores. Located in the same space previously occupied by their old units, the four kiosks take up as much space as two manned checkout lanes. There are two self-checkout units per lane. The kiosks, in fact, take up so little room because no conveyer belt is needed to move products along (everything is tallied using the scanner) that a cooler selling Red Bull is located between the two units in one aisle! Both aisles are marked by bright orange “Self Checkout” illuminated signs on poles about 12 feet off the ground.
Here are the latest iterations at Home Depot. Dell, Ingenico, hand scanner + black box.
home depot self checkout SCO 2023
There are several notable, positive changes. The 22″ Dell touchscreen is more than twice the size of the previous units. The interface has been completely updated; it is very well-designed and easy to use. Very few words are used; almost everything has a pictogram associated with each step, thereby eliminating any confusion.
The instructions are quick and to the point: Start Scanning. The customer takes the PowerScan scanner out of its holster and aims it at the bar code on the item he wishes to scan. He has to push in the orange “trigger” button on the scanner in order to operate it but this is easy to figure out. If a customer has a problem, there is a human assistant who quickly comes to resolve the problem and help move things along. She was most pleasant and not-at-all-condescending. The scanner is quite forgiving – the customer does not have to align the scanner perfectly over the barcode. He just has to get the scanner close enough so that it registers. The process takes only a second.
The advantage of these cordless scanners is that they can transmit the barcoded data over a good distance which is useful for sheets of plywood, 2x4s, and other large-sized items. (Previous scanners in several self-checkout deployments—notably IKEA–used tethered scanners which made the process difficult and frustrating.) Each item is scanned in the same way, with a running tab showing on the touchscreen.
When the customer has finished, a “Ready to Pay?” screen is presented with a large rectangular orange “Pay Now” button appearing. (The smaller Pro Xtra ID button is Home Depot’s loyalty program and is not covered in this review.)
The next screen is intended only for those environmentally-aware localities where customers have to pay for each bag they use. This Home Depot, in Rockville, MD, is in one of those jurisdictions. Each plastic bag costs $.05. Accordingly, the next screen asks the customer to indicate how many bags they wish to purchase with numbers from 0 to 7+. There is no visual feedback on these kiosks; when you push a button, nothing tells you that what you pushed has been acknowledged. On the other hand, the system works so quickly and effortlessly, it is not an issue. (Note: as can be seen from the picture of the unit, the stack of plastic bags is easily accessible and one wonders how many people simply “help themselves” to free plastic bags.)
The units are intended only for customers NOT paying with cash. The opening screen states this fact clearly and in large font: CARD PAYMENTS ONLY. The customer is then asked to Choose your payment type. There are three options: Credit or Debit cards, Home Depot Gift cards and a special Home Depot Commercial card for the many professional contractors who patronize this store. The Ingenico card reader is very familiar to customers who have had plenty of experience using these devices to pay for groceries and gas. The receipt is quickly printed at the compact NCR printer located to the left of the kiosk. Many customers don’t even take their receipt; note the wastebasket located on the floor under the printer.
These kiosks represent an evolutionary change in the self-checkout space. Home Depot is to be commended for installing effective, easy-to-use, and fast kiosks. The customers and assistants I interviewed all agree that these units are a positive and welcome step forward. Lastly, every customer said they were a pleasure to use.
Notes
In any event, all the peripherals are within legal limits. The whole unit is so close to the end of the table–on which the touchscreen sits–that people in wheelchairs can readily access the kiosk. In addition, there is so much space in the aisle that wheelchair-bound people can easily turn around if they are more comfortable accessing it with their right arm/hand.
Associated Press story published on Oil City News 5/12/2019
Editors note: There should be a way to accept cash without the usual liabilities and the usual ways. Cash for credit conversion machines for example.
By ALEXANDRA OLSON and KEN SWEET AP Business Writers
NEW YORK (AP) — Hembert Figueroa just wanted a taco.
So he was surprised to learn the dollar bills in his pocket were no good at Dos Toros Taqueria in Manhattan, one of a small but growing number of establishments across the U.S. where customers can only pay by card or smartphone.
Cash-free stores are generating a backlash among some activists and liberal-leaning policymakers who say the practice discriminates against people like Figueroa, who either lack bank accounts or rely on cash for many transactions.
Figueroa, an ironworker, had to stand to the side, holding his taco, until a sympathetic cashier helped him find another customer willing to pay for his meal with a card in exchange for cash.
“I had money and I couldn’t pay,” he said.
Read complete story published on Oil City News 5/12/2019
.@minutekey locks down self-service keys at key-copy kiosks http://t.co/FcMGxanrbc http://t.co/6OVFG73ace
Source: boulderopolis.com
Click photo kiosk image to expand to larger view
SAN DIEGO, CA, April 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via NEWMEDIAWIRE – Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc. (OTCQB: VEND) announced today that it has reached terms to acquire the assets of Print Mates, LLC, a small team of entrepreneurs, software engineers, and photography professionals in San Diego that are on a mission to reinvent the premium-quality photo printing experience by making it fast, fun, and inexpensive to get your photos “out of your phone and into your hand” with the Print Mates™ Kiosk.
Nick Yates, CEO of Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, said that the Print Mates assets will be held by a wholly owned subsidiary of Generation Next which will operate separately with its own facilities, staff, and resources. “It is extremely important to us that Print Mates, or any acquisition, is mature enough and has the right team, product and supply chain to operate independently, as a wholly-owned but separate subsidiary. For us, anything less would have been a non-starter,” Yates said, noting that the nationwide rollout of the company’s flagship unattended franchising concept, Reis & Irvy’s, has both his and Generation Next’s “undivided attention.”
“Print Mates™ is a turn-key subsidiary for us. The team, facilities, manufacturing and product fulfillment; everything is in place. The Print Mates™ Kiosk perfectly complements our product portfolio, and is ready to ship. The timing of the acquisition was designed to allow us to be first to market with a complementary unattended retail concept that is even more autonomous than our flagship Reis & Irvy’s kiosks, requiring only about 30 minutes per month in human maintenance,” Yates said. “The ultimate goal however is to own and operate thousands of these replicating the Redbox/Coinstar model and the team at Print Mates has already established relationships and tests with the country’s largest retail, convenience and grocery chains.
Generation Next is assuming the liabilities of Print Mates, LLC in exchange for the assets. There is no cash consideration being paid by Generation Next to Print Mates or any of its members. The assets acquired include five patent applications, complete engineering documents for the kiosk, customer contracts, supplier agreements, intellectual property, and proprietary software. A contract with a Canadian licensee with a commitment to purchase $7,000,000 of Print Mates Kiosks over a 5-year term is part of the assets acquired by Generation Next. The liabilities assumed by Generation Next net of kiosk inventory value are approximately $300,000.
An Unfulfilled Demand in a Billion Dollar Industry
Due in large part to consumers’ adoption of the smartphone, at least 1.5 trillion photos are estimated to have been captured in 2018. Predictions to 2022 continue to show a compounded annual growth (CAGR) in that figure of greater than 10 percent, so that by 2022 the number of photos captured annually will grow to over 2.3 trillion. Print Mates™ is an innovative new way to monetize consumers’ craze for the phone camera.
Print Mates™ unattended kiosks are designed to reinvent the premium-quality photo printing experience by making it fast, fun, and inexpensive to get your photos “out of your phone into your hand,” while creating a low-to-no maintenance, extremely high margin business opportunity in unattended retail for entrepreneurs and retailers. Recent consumer research reports show that consumers in every age group – from tweens to Millennials; from Generation X to Baby Boomers – still desire to preserve their most cherished memories in high-quality photo prints. But until now, professional-quality, third party services that turned digital photos into prints were either too inconvenient, too slow, or too expensive for today’s consumer.
Print Mates™ easy-to-use, patented touchscreen kiosks are promising to close the loop on the consumer photo lifecycle, as well as drive much-needed foot traffic to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses ranging from supermarkets, grocery and drug stores to big box retailers, shopping malls, family fun centers, convenience stores, hotels, airports, and more. The Print Mates™ Kiosks put reliable and quality photo printing at customers’ fingertips while allowing independent operators and business owners to earn a very high margin from each sale. Customers love using the Print Mates™ Kiosk because they can instantly, easily and cost-effectively print high-quality photos directly from their smartphones or through their favorite social media (Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, Dropbox, and Flickr) photo sharing, or cloud storage accounts in six different sizes of prints in just seconds.
Consumers can also conveniently order decor and other photo products, gifts and accessories ranging from frames, picture books, posters, jumbo-sized prints, and fridge magnets to beautiful canvas and wood prints and have them conveniently shipped to their home with just a few taps. A soon-to-be-released software update will also add an option for passport photos, a product many retailers are asked for daily.
“The team at Print Mates is solving another problem with a simple, unattended retail kiosk solution,” Yates said. “We all have hundreds, if not thousands, of photos stuck in our cell phones and stored on social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram. The only reason most of us don’t print them is because we don’t have a convenient way to do so, staring us in the face,” Yates continued. “Print Mates kiosks can be placed in any number of location categories, from grocery chains to hotels and big box retailers, just to name a few. And the kiosks earn extremely high margins on each sale with some products on the kiosks’ menu selling for as much as $125 dollars. The team at Print Mates has secured agreements to test the kiosks in some of the largest grocery, convenience and big box retail chains across the U.S., representing tens of thousands of potential locations, and our plan is to provide Generation Next, our shareholders, and our franchisees the exclusive opportunity to own, operate and share in the revenue provided by this extraordinary product,” Yates concluded.
Print Mates™ location partners will be supported by a unique marketing program that leverages Google Business to drive consumers in real time directly to their machines whenever they need to quickly and conveniently print their photos. If a customer types “photo printing” in to the google search engine, it will point them to the closest Print Mates retailer. The strategy will be paired with a national regional marketing program to create awareness of the Print Mates™ brand.
Item 404 of Regulation S-K requires disclosure of any transaction over $120,000 in which the Company is a participant and any related person has a direct or indirect material interest. “Related persons” include directors, nominees, executive officers, five percent shareholders and their immediate family members. The present acquisition of the assets of Print Mates, LLC is a related party transaction as the sole member of Print Mates, LLC, Franklyn Yates, is an immediate family member (Brother) of Nicholas Yates, the CEO and Chairman of Generation Next Franchise Brands, Inc. The transaction has been duly authorized by the Board of Directors of the Company who have been informed of the related party interest.
Generation NEXT Website: www.gennextbrands.com
About Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc.
Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc., based in San Diego, California, is a publicly traded company on the OTC Markets trading under the symbol OTCBB: VEND. Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc. is parent company to Reis and Irvy’s Inc, 19 Degrees Corporate Service LLC and Print Mates.www.gennextbrands.com
About Print Mates
Print Mates™ was formed by a team of entrepreneurs, engineers, and photography professionals in San Diego that are on a mission to reinvent the premium-quality photo printing experience by making it fast, fun, and inexpensive to get your photos “out of your phone and into your hand” with the Print Mates™ Kiosk – and creating a golden opportunity for retailers in the process.
Print Mates’™ easy-to-use, patented touchscreen kiosks are promising to close the loop on the consumer photo lifecycle, as well as drive much-needed foot traffic to traditional brick-and-mortar businesses ranging from supermarkets, grocery and drug stores to big box retailers, shopping malls, family fun centers, hotels, airports and more.
The company began a nationwide expansion in 2019 by offering retailers, business owners and forward-thinking retailers across the country an opportunity to own a piece of an emerging multi billion-dollar industry.
Print Mates™ Kiosks and ever-expanding product line of photographic decor, gifts, prints and accessories are proudly Made in the USA.www.printmates.com
About Reis & Irvy’s, Inc.
Reis & Irvy’s, Inc. is a subsidiary franchise concept of Generation NEXT Franchise Brands, Inc. (VEND). Launched in early 2016, the revolutionary Reis & Irvy’s Vending Robot serves seven different flavors of frozen yogurt, ice cream, sorbets and gelatos, a choice of up to six custom toppings, and to customers within 60 seconds or less at the point of sale. The unique franchise opportunity has since established itself as a high-demand product and currently showcases a franchise network both domestically as well as internationally. www.reisandirvys.com
Reprinted with permission from Olea Kiosks news 3/16/2019
There are all sorts of situations where a company needs to accept regular payments from their customers. Utility payments, cellphone bills and store credit cards are just a few of the situations where customers make regular payments.
And if one thinks that the ability for those organizations to accept payments via their website, mobile or by mail has eliminated the need for other payment options, they’d be mistaken. Some example payments include Alimony, Rent payments, Healthcare co-pays, mobile phone payments, cable TV bills, money transfers, tuition payments, and correctional facility services.
The Franklin Bill Payment Kiosk from Olea is designed to simplify cash transactions. Standard options include a high-capacity bill acceptor, bill dispenser, coin dispenser, credit card terminal, and receipt printer
Others include cell phone top-ups, long distance, and digital phone cards for International calls. There are international payment options available as well, especially for Latin Amerian countries like Mexico, where for example the customer can pay his mother’s Telmex bill in California.
And how these payments are made are important to note. As much as Check21 did to simply checks, that is still a major form of payment depending on the venue. You have cash payment terminals running $5000 a day in some locations. And then there is a credit card and mobile.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, more than 8.4 million households in the United States are unbanked, meaning they don’t have access to a checking or savings account. Other data points to at least 50 million unbanked. Another 24.2 million households are underbanked, with access to a checking or savings account but also making use of financial products and services outside of the banking system. Together, more than a fourth of U.S. households are unbanked or underbanked.
There are specific geographic and demographic data outlining these groups. Ethnic and cultural factors play into it with some cultures preferring cash.
Having a reduced set of payment options for what can be a very large customer set doesn’t help retain and create more customers. The end result of adding bill payment options ultimately increases the cash flow for companies and expands their consumer base.
In addition, a significant portion of the population, primarily lower-income and younger people, still prefers to conduct their business in cash. Maybe they don’t trust the banking system. Maybe they tend to pay bills closer to their due date and don’t want to risk a late payment or service cutoff. A personal US Mail check or money order may be delayed. Maybe they want to wait till the last moment during the “last chance” before penalty phase. It could be a language. Add to that the 11 percent of U.S. adults who don’t use the Internet, according to a Pew Research study, and it’s clear there will always there will always be a need to provide payment options to customers.
That’s where a bill pay kiosk comes into play.
The benefits of adding a bill pay kiosk to an organization’s payment options are many. For the customer, those include few service disruptions, improved credit and fewer reconnect and/or late payment fees. The kiosks in a way become the financial center or “bank” for the underserved, which they know the bank has ignored them. For the organization, they include more timely payments, fewer trips by a technician to reconnect service that was cut off, lower staffing needs at the payment center, fewer trips to payday loan, check cashing centers where they used to go before the kiosk, and overall much improved customer satisfaction. That translates to higher retention of existing customers and a higher acquisition rate of new customers.
Still, accepting payments by kiosk isn’t just a matter of setting up a device in the headquarters lobby and hoping for the best. Here are a few considerations to take into account when deploying a bill pay kiosk.
27 percent of U.S. households do not have regular access to banks and other mainstream financial services.
That’s 90.6 million financially marginalized people who are further penalized, in terms of time and money, by having to rely on alternate financial services (AFS), which charge fees for transactions that are often free to customers of banks, credit unions and other federally insured institutions. Despite the financial recovery since the Great Recession and the growth of online financial services, the number of households with little or no access to bank accounts has remained stubbornly steady since 2009, when the FDIC began collecting statistics on the phenomenon.
Theresa Schmall, a manager at CFSI, points out that “solutions using digital and mobile platforms can provide expanded access” for the unbanked. It may also remove the presumption of exclusivity that prevents many unbanked and underbanked households from approaching mainstream financial services — while also eliminating those seemingly endless lines.
July 2018 article by OZY
By a large margin, those people who don’t use the Internet are 65 or older. Some of the main reasons, they say, are that it’s too difficult and they believe they’re too old to learn. If the kiosk application is too difficult to use it’ll be the same reason they give for avoiding it.
Incorporate large fonts and a logical payment process for the interface to make the kiosk easy on the eyes and the brain. Incorporate a simple way to start the process over if the user makes a mistake. It won’t hurt to have a staff member nearby during the first few weeks after initial rollout to assist first-time users. Kiosk technology also makes it easy to incorporate a variety of languages; make sure you include those options, especially if the unit will be located in a culturally diverse area. Users will appreciate it.
Include marketing materials about the new bill pay kiosks with bills, in print ads, on TV commercials, and on your website. Also have office staff inform customers who come in to pay their bills about the devices, and offer to guide them through the payment process.
One of the beauties of kiosk technology is that it allows organizations to expand their footprint without the capital costs of a brick-and-mortar location. In addition, we now live in a world where people expect to be able to conduct business at any hour of the day.
One way to increase the value of bill pay kiosks is to place them in areas where customers can access them at any time of the day or night, in a place that’s convenient for them. Along with placing a kiosk in the lobby of the central office, consider placing units in grocery stores or other 24-hour locations. This would be especially important when a significant number of customers live in rural locations.
Making sure that the right biller is available in the right geographic area is important. Utilities get the biggest use, and they’re the “magnet” effect if you are pulling the customers into paying their utility bills. Once the customer is there, they can see an array of options for paying their cable, wireless phone, and stored value cards like VISA & MC prepaid cards
Nothing will frustrate customers more than a kiosk that’s out of order when they need to pay a bill. If it happens more than once, you’ve likely lost them as kiosk customers forever. Invest in a solution that incorporates quality, reliable hardware.
One the same note, make sure the kiosk hardware and software is secure from tampering. The last thing a business needs is the expense and negative publicity that accompanies a data breach.
Partnering with an experienced vendor saves you the headaches of learning these lessons on your own. Work with someone that has existing projects and can offer consulting and advice on how to make your project a success. Olea Kiosks stands ready to help.
To get started with a free consultation, call Olea Kiosks today or contact us online.
Xerox on Feb 27th announced their new “Print Kiosk”, only it isn’t really a kiosk in the usual sense. It appears to be more user friendly multifunction printer that also allows for pay-for-use with the usual wart-style POS terminal. It does include an embedded 10″ touchscreen (Android tablet?).
Still, if we were running a coffee shop like Starbucks in Vegas or Chicago business district we might be tempted. Many people do consider Starbucks to be their remote office.
https://www.xerox.com/en-us/office/print-kiosk
With superior performance across all functions, the Xerox® Instant Print Kiosk keeps walk-up users’ jobs moving quickly without hassles. That means more revenue for kiosk owners.
Instant Print Kiosk customers serve themselves with easy print/copy/scan/fax functions. And with EFI™ Self-Serve Admin Central — a cloud-based management portal — administrators have central control of Instant Print Kiosks, wherever they’re located. EFI Self-Serve Admin Central manages payment-card authorization services for all devices with the included FreedomPay card reader, and enables secure credit card payment with chip authorization and P2PE.
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Craig is a senior staff writer for Kiosk Industry Group Association. He has 25 years of experience in the industry. He contributed to this article. |
Full article originally published on TheAllState.com
New to the nation and new to the APSU campus, Chick-fil-A order-taking kiosks were officially debuted to students on Monday, Jan. 14. The kiosks are located in the Morgan University Center food court. Lauren Fladger, Senior Leader of Chick-fil-A’s Service and Hospitality team, said “[Austin Peay] is the first college campus that Chick-fil-A has been really involved with the implementation of kiosks.”
Construction for these kiosks began in December and was completed just in time for the Spring semester. There are a total of three kiosks and customers can easily navigate the touch screens when fulfilling their orders.
The kiosks will automatically change menus depending on the time; properly formatting to breakfast, lunch and dinner options.
Upon completion, students or guests will be shown an order confirmation on the kiosk screen and receive a printed receipt. After that, customers can get into line to receive their order from Chick-fil-A’s counter.
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Craig is a senior staff writer for Kiosk Industry Group Association. He has 25 years of experience in the industry. He contributed to this article. |
Press release originally published on BusinessWire
KIOSK and Posiflex demonstrate new technology and new designs with Bitcoin ATMs, BOPIS, Digital Signage, Remote Monitoring, and Omnichannel IoT at NRF (Photo: Business Wire)
LOUISVILLE, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Together, KIOSK Information Systems (KIOSK) and parent company, Posiflex will showcase a wide array of new connected retail solutions for self-service, point of sale, and digital signage at the 2019 NRF Big Show, Booth #3755. The team will demonstrate advances in hardware, software, and service technologies that bridge digital and physical spaces to facilitate connected consumer transactions.
Posiflex’s recently appointed Global Chief Strategy Officer, Hans Peter Nüdling, states, “I’m thrilled to introduce the Posiflex Group at NRF. ‘The Posiflex Group’ references the collective brands of Posiflex, KIOSK, and Portwell computing. It encompasses a strategic blend of world-class POS, self-service, industrial gateway/computing technologies under one virtual corporate roof. At NRF, the Group will be illustrating Omnichannel IoT applied in Retail, Hospitality, and Digital Signage product applications. Our Group mission is to leverage the leading-edge technologies and earned domain expertise of each brand to collaboratively drive new product innovation and global market growth. Further, uniting the vast global Engineering, Operations, and Distribution infrastructure elevates the Group’s strategic IoT solution portfolio and value proposition for our global customer base.” Mr. Nüdling will be building up a major European presence, supplementing primary design and manufacturing facilities in the US and Asia.
Inside the booth, the Group will debut two new standard kiosk offerings. The TK Series (designed by KIOSK and manufactured by Posiflex in Taiwan), are modular platforms with a 32” or 21” display. The new Paragon TK3200 Series kiosk features a sleek 32” PCAP display with componentry purpose-built for quick serve and fast casual restaurant order automation (wall mount, single/dual sided pedestal). Further, the existing Stellar TK2100 Series kiosk has been re-designed as an innovative modular unit with mainstream component options common to most self-service transactions (pedestal or countertop). Both TK models are built with highly reliable Posiflex components, pairing superior life-cycle and supply chain advantage with attractive pricing. The TK kiosk series is built in Taiwan and stocked regionally for final configuration, providing best-in-class lead-times.
KIOSK will proudly feature two new partner platforms. Beabloo and KIOSK have collaborated on a digital signage platform empowered with active customer intelligence. The demo simultaneously shows customer facial recognition and related engagement/demographic analytics, illustrating how real-time customer insight data helps retailers optimize ad content. It provides scannable digital QR codes empowering consumers to carry store offers, promotions, and product information to complete purchases anytime – through any channel.
A second KIOSK partner collaboration is with Bitstop, a pioneer in Bitcoin ATMs. This platform enables instantaneous cash to bitcoin purchase transactions with a simple kiosk UI. This fast-growing cryptocurrency ATM category helps retailers monetize floor space and increase foot traffic.
KIOSK will also feature their own licensed product platforms. Demos include sophisticated licensable bill payment hardware and software, freeing up Store Associates to focus entirely on closing new sales and driving store profits. Additional retail self-service solutions include loyalty/gift registry platforms automating in-store signup, promotional offer presentation, and self-service gift registry management. Standard locker demonstrations for BOPIS (buy online pick up in store), illustrate secure online sales transaction pick-up, driving customer convenience and security, bonused with additional in-store foot traffic/secondary purchases.
In booth, Posiflex – best known for reliable POS solutions – will feature their award-winning RT Series POS terminals (slim standard and widescreen displays), and MT series POS tablets. MT Tablets represent the next-generation in mobile POS with durable Gorilla Glass and optional EMV L2 chip and pin options.
Advanced deployment management software product demonstrations include real-time IoT alerting software to monitor connected POS, kiosk, and signage end-points in real time and at scale. A feature rich remote monitoring dashboard displays the overall health of POS, kiosk, and signage platforms down to the peripheral and component level. This end-point automation visibility is the gold standard for managing uptime and controlling field service costs.
Please stop by booth #3755 to explore the latest offerings or discuss your specific project with the Global (multi-lingual) Posiflex Group team.
About Posiflex
Founded in 1984, Posiflex Technology, Inc. has designed and manufactured its own-branded and world-class POS solutions. Since 2016, Posiflex has determined to grow beyond the POS business and further expand itself into self-service solutions (KIOSK), and to a few more vertical markets serving B2B IoT platforms empowered by embedded PC. Posiflex’s offices are in the USA, Germany, Netherlands, UK, China, India, Singapore, UAE, Malaysia, Japan, and Korea along with the global distribution networks to provide direct and timely support to its customers around the world. For more information, please visit www.posiflex.com or use the contact information below.
About KIOSK Information Systems
As the market leader in self-service solutions, KIOSK provides proven expertise in design engineering, application development, integration, manufacturing, field support, and managed services for even the most sophisticated self-service platforms. A deep portfolio of standard and custom KIOSK designs are deployed among Top 100 Retailers and Fortune 500 clients in a wide array of self-service vertical markets. www.kiosk.com
KIOSK Information Systems
Press Contact:
Cheryl Madeson, +1 720 984 8270
[email protected]
or
Posiflex
Press Contact:
Brad Chou, +886 2 2268 5577
[email protected]
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TouchPay™ is the country’s only fully automated, real-time, stand-alone bill pay kiosk terminal that, in partnership with over
If you’re tired of getting in line at the bank or the mall for paying up your bills, TouchPay™ is the best solution to cut time and effort. All of the services you can think of are available at your fingertips: from electric bills, to internet, to flight tickets and booking, to remittance, to loading stations. There’s no need to wait in line that feels like forever when you can pay via TouchPay™ – Easy. Secure. Convenient.
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Press release originally published on https://www.meridiankiosks.com/meridian-kiosks-announces-launch-of-newly-redesigned-website/
Aberdeen, NC – October 26, 2018 –Meridian, an industry-leading kiosk manufacturer and software developer recently launched a newly redesigned website. Though the site was completely redesigned, those who have previously visited can find it under the same domain as before, meridiankiosks.com.
Stephanie Mewherter, Meridian’s Marketing Director, spearheaded the website launch process. “The site was last redesigned in 2015, so it was well overdue for a facelift,” Mewherter said. “After three years of developing a large library of resources, we needed a better way to make those resources available to the public.”
That large library of resources includes expanded information on Meridian’s product lines of indoor kiosks, outdoor kiosks, and digital signage. “The newly designed product pages provide significantly more information to our site visitors,” Mewherter said. Each product page is now complete with images, sizing information, and customization options to help bring to life how Meridian’s standard kiosk models can be designed to meet each end-user’s unique needs.
The new site also provides a platform on which visitors can submit contact requests for more information and download a wide range of content—from product specification sheets to resources like case studies and white papers. Information on Meridian’s mzero kiosk software solutions are available as well.
In addition to offering more information and resources, the new site is also easier to navigate. “We are excited about the new streamlined design which makes finding information much easier for site visitors,” said Mewherter. The new user-friendly interface is designed to inform and assist current and potential customers across the entire spectrum—from those gathering their first bits of information about digital kiosks and their capabilities, to those who are in a position to move forward and make a purchasing decision.
Following the site launch on October 14, Meridian has already noticed an uptick in site visitors and anticipates that the trend will continue for the foreseeable future. “We are excited about the influx of inquiries that we’ve already started to receive after the launch, and look forward to continuing to provide our clients with innovative self-service solutions as Meridian continues to grow as a market leader.”
Meridian is a fully integrated manufacturer of indoor and outdoor kiosks, interactive digital signage, and self-service software. As a complete end-to-end self-service innovator, Meridian develops products and services all under one roof, providing greater efficiency, and lean, high-quality results. Experience Meridian’s newly redesigned website for yourself at meridiankiosks.com.
Visit any college or university academic building and you’ll most likely be overwhelmed with an abundance of technology. Classrooms are digitized, libraries are home to countless computers, cameras, and equipment, and if you asked any student what kind of technology they had in their bookbag, their list would probably include some combination of a laptop, tablet, and smartphone. Odds are, that laptop, tablet, and smartphone also house a few online textbooks, and sometimes even the curriculum for an entire semester-long course.
There’s no denying that students and professors, alike, are more tech-savvy than ever—they’re incorporating digital learning into their lectures, presentations, homework, and projects. However, while many colleges and universities are incorporating technology into the learning environment, many are just beginning to invest in technology outside of the classroom. While technology is certainly a useful learning tool, universities and colleges can benefit greatly from exploring other innovative ways to incorporate it into other aspects of their campus.
Digital signage and kiosks utilize the technology that students, professors, and visitors know and love to promote information sharing, efficiency, and accessibility across campus.
Colleges and universities can implement digital kiosks and signage for:
College and university campuses of all sizes are home to a plethora of events on any given day. From clubs and greek life, to sporting events, professional organizations, and career fairs—it can be difficult for students to stay in the know with all that’s going on. Digital signage, placed strategically throughout campus, can serve as a unique information hub for students to reference as they’re walking from class to class, or planning their afternoon or weekend.
While most colleges and universities offer an online portal on which students and parents can pay tuition and fees, those sites are typically only compatible with debit or credit card payments. Tuition and bill payment kiosks, on the other hand, allow students to make payments with cash, check, credit, or debit card at their own convenience. The solutions are both secure and user friendly, allowing them to be placed in common areas, such as student unions, dining halls, and administration buildings, where students have 24/7 access.
Though college and university campuses vary in size, they can still be difficult to navigate—especially for visitors or new students. Wayfinding kiosks can be strategically placed throughout campuses in central locations and designed to include interactive maps, directories, and listings that provide additional information about the selected destination. They can also be equipped with printing and mobile integration capabilities, making it even easier for students and visitors to find their destination.
Students and on-campus staff use their ID cards for a multitude of daily tasks, from swiping into buildings, to buying food in the dining hall, and checking out materials or computers from the library. So in the instance that someone loses their ID card, they’ll most likely want to replace it immediately. While most colleges and universities have an office where students and staff can replace their cards during business hours, banner ID and card printing kiosks allow for 24/7 access. Students and staff can simply take their picture, pay for, and retrieve their card all through the kiosk and in a matter of minutes.
Whether it’s visitors and prospective students checking in for a tour, or current students checking in for an academic advising or tutoring appointment, digital check-in kiosks allow users to bypass the traditional check-in process at the administration desk. Users are able to interact with the kiosk to check in, confirm their information, and electronically complete any necessary documentation. Check-in kiosks also enable university employees, who would have previously been tasked with the check-in process, to be available to answer questions and provide any necessary guidance to visitors or students.
College and university classrooms and libraries are home to some of the latest and most advanced technology, but many schools are just beginning to take the first steps toward fully integrating technology throughout campus. Digital kiosks and signage are a great place to start, as they incorporate the technology students, professors, and visitors already use in other aspects of their everyday life to simplify their on-campus experience.
To learn more about Meridian’s digital kiosk and signage solutions, visit meridiankiosks.com.
Interactive kiosks have become commonplace in restaurants, retail stores, health care facilities and other locations. But as technology improves and new applications come along, kiosks are becoming an integral part of the outdoor environment as well.
Opportunities for outdoor kiosk deployments include event ticketing, campus wayfinding and drive-through ordering, among others. Consumers today are increasingly pressed for time, and an outdoor kiosk can help provide the convenience they seek. It’s likely that as the technology develops, new and as-yet unheard-of uses will be found.
But all kiosks aren’t created equal, and that’s particularly true when it comes to those designed for outdoor use. Not only can working with an experienced vendor go a long way to determining the project’s success, it can help protect a deployer from regulatory liability and unnecessary maintenance costs.
Obviously, an outdoor kiosk should be designed from the ground up as a watertight enclosure, with watertight seams and insulated inner walls to protect internal components from heat and cold.
In addition, a reputable vendor designs to UL guidelines to certify that the units are waterproof and safe to operate in rain or snow, and routinely implements UL testing on first prototypes for customers who require UL certification. Factors such as power, grounding and mounting are more significant factors with an outdoor kiosk than one located indoors, making adherence to UL guidelines of critical importance.
Outdoor kiosks also need to adhere to the same Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines as indoor units, ensuring accessibility for all users. Failing to do so exposes a deployer to fines and lawsuits that can run into many thousands of dollars.
Olea Kiosks, for example, incorporated those concerns when it designed and built 56 ticketing kiosks that were deployed as part of a front gate renovation and new attraction opening at a major theme park. The ADA-compliant kiosks are used by thousands of visitors every day.
To ensure they perform flawlessly over their intended 5- to 7-year lifespan in a variety of outdoor conditions, the kiosks included a custom interior air conditioning mount and 2” thick insulation to ensure low internal temperatures in an environment that can routinely exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The enclosures were manufactured with powder-coated stainless steel and waterproof mounting points to protect from wet weather and eliminate the possibility of rust.
But while those are the obvious concerns, Olea took additional steps to address issues that may not have been so apparent.
The kiosks have a significant amount of artistic branding, allowing them to serve as decorative signage as well. The material used for the branding is designed to withstand fading, ensuring the devices look fresh and cutting-edge for years. In addition, because the kiosks are placed in a high-traffic area outside of the park near a number of retail and restaurant locations, they include a removable front cover to protect the touchscreen during hours when the park is closed.
The features Olea has built into its outdoor ticketing kiosks are embodied in the Seattle model. The Seattle includes a 19-inch high-brightness touchscreen with top-tier components built to withstand all types of weather conditions. Temperature control systems and IP65-qualified rating make the Seattle perfect for hot and cold weather deployments.
The Seattle also features a bolt-down base plate, allowing them to be securely mounted in places including sidewalks, parking lots and outside business entrances.
Capabilities include ticket and wristband printing, payment acceptance including EMV components and barcode scanning. The Seattle is ideal for event ticket sales, concessions and ride entrances.
Would you like fries with that?Another area of growth for outdoor kiosks is the restaurant drive-thru lane. Combining the fact that a typical QSR does as much as 70 percent of its business at the drive-thru and self-order kiosks have been demonstrated to increase ticket averages by 10 percent or more, the marriage of fast-food drive-thru and self-order technology makes perfect sense.
In addition to the ability to automate the suggested selling process, self-order kiosks offer easy customization or orders, helping to boost sales. Customers may also indulge in the occasional splurge free of guilt, knowing the kiosk won’t be critical of their meal choices.
Fast food giant Wendy’s for example, has already rolled out kiosks at 300 of its stores with plans to add them to additional locations soon. Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor told the investment news site TheStreet that locations with self-order kiosks are seeing higher average checks and customer satisfaction scores, likely a result of their ability to allow guests to customize their meals.
“It’s a part of the future of eating out,” Penegor said.
Olea’s entry into the drive-thru arena is its Detroit model. The Detroit includes a 32-inch sunlight-viewable touchscreen. (After all, who among us hasn’t used our hand as a shield so we can see an ATM or Redbox screen?) The multitouch touchscreen provides an ergonomic interaction — whether from a sports car or large SUV.
The enclosure is designed to reduce power draw and includes options for custom branding and overhead signage. The devices can be installed as either freestanding units, two-sided or in-wall, column or post mounts. They also include presence detection to “wake up” the units when customers approach and marine-grade stereo speakers for communication with staff.
One major national sandwich chain has seen their drive-thru sales increase by 15 percent at locations where they have deployed an Olea drive-thru kiosk.
Kiosks for all seasonsNot all deployment locations are the same. Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of how their customers move through a location, and to maximize revenue they must be prepared to serve their customers wherever they may be. Kiosks can help optimize those transactions whether they take place inside the venue, just outside the front door or in the drive-thru lane.
Olea kiosks can be designed to withstand any environment, from summer in Arizona to winter in Minnesota. The company’s engineers have options for solid-state heating and cooling systems to complete HVAC systems designed specifically for kiosks.
Olea’s outdoor kiosks come with monitors from 8” to 84” or larger and can include payment, printers, solar, wireless and just about any other equipment that can be put into an indoor kiosk. The company uses only the most durable stainless steel and aluminum for its outdoor kiosks, running each through a multistage painting and plating processes.
Olea kiosks also feature automotive-style gaskets, compression-style locks, and unlike some galvanized electroplating and more, all to ensure an Olea outdoor kiosk will last as long and be a trouble-free as any indoor kiosk.
There are hundreds of applications suitable for an outdoor kiosk, and more are being developed every day. The best way to implement a successful outdoor kiosk deployment is to work with a vendor who is experienced in those deployments and has a track record of success. Olea Kiosks stands ready to help.
By opening up the platform, the tech giant is empowering users to bring cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) to workflows it has never serviced before.
Source: www.pcmag.com
Before launching the SDK into the wild, Square worked with a number of select partners to build custom POS solutions by using Square’s technology. The aforementioned Shake Shack has recently been testing cashier-less stores, which it calls the “Shack of the Future,” in New York City. Working with the development agency Fuzz, the burger chain built a self-service kiosk that let customers order their food and pay all by themselves. Even though it used Square’s infrastructure of security and payment support, these experimental restaurants were able to drive down wait times with a solution that was effectively customized just for them.
Written by Katie Kochelek of Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc. Original full article.
July 17, 2018
It isn’t often you come upon those people whose enthusiasm for their work and industry is so outright contagious. But if you know Ron Bowers, Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc.’s Senior VP of Retail Technology Business Development and a long-time thought leader in the point of purchase industry, you know exactly what I mean when describing his infectious optimism for all things technology and display-related.
I knew the moment I walked in to Ron’s office my first week at Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc. that he’d be a wealth of knowledge. And as a new employee with limited education in this field, I found myself scribbling notes at lightning speed about topics ranging from retail’s new horizon to how the Internet of Things will help brands and retailers offer the personalized experiences consumers crave.
Click for full size. Nice desk. What year is that Pop Times cover?
I left Ron’s office feeling inspired to research as much as I could and often referred to him with questions as I started writing more blogs and white papers for the company. He always cheerfully obliged, providing important insight on topics based not only on his many years of experience, but also because he is diligent at keeping up-to-date on all the latest news pertaining to our business.
If you need to understand the latest technology, he’s the guy to find. (In fact, I often tell him he’s a better millennial than those of us who can technically claim the title.)
So, when Ron recently announced he would be retiring at the end of July, the news was met with countless congratulations as well as a tinge of sadness from the many who will miss discussions with Ron on the trade show circuit and beyond.
Consequently, it only seemed appropriate to dedicate our July blog to the man behind an era. I sat down with him to discuss his history in our industry as well as what he foresees for the future.
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Q: Tell me a little about your history here at Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc.
A: I’ve been here for 35 years, starting in December of 1983 as a sales coordinator and moving into an account executive position the following August. In 2005, I was promoted to Senior Vice President of Retail Technology Business Development and have gotten to use my experience and networking skills to generate new opportunities for Frank Mayer and Associates.
Q: What clients have you worked with over your time here?
A: I’ve worked with countless clients. The long list includes: Lucky Eagle Foods, Kroger, Miller Brewing, Pabst Brewing, Olympia Brewing, IBM, Lexitech, Aviotex, Media Port, Nicklaus Golf, MacGregor Golf, Arnold Palmer Golf, Nancy Lopez Golf, Allstate Insurance, AM General/HUMMER, Kohler, Garmin, John Deere, Kelloggs Cereal, Leupold, Cabela’s, Medicine Shoppe, Int., Solo Health, Starbucks, Unicru/Kronos/SureID, Irving Oil, Agilysys Systems, Big Lots, Briggs & Stratton, Dave & Busters, Seven-up/Dr. Pepper, OkiData, Familymeds, Giant Eagle, KEO, Go Charge, Intellectual Technology, Kraft Foods, LeapFrog, and Master Lock.
Q: Any favorites?
A: I really enjoyed working with John Deere and was lucky enough to see our work win a Display of the Year award from the POPAI organization in 1992 for the company’s shop-in-shop program. I’d also include Miller Race Car and Nicklaus Golf as favorites.
Q: What has been your favorite aspect of working in the point of purchase industry?
A: I truly enjoy helping a new product make an impact at retail, thus leading to client success. And truth be told, it never gets old seeing my displays at retail locations when I take my wife, kids and grandkids shopping.
Q: How have you witnessed the industry change over the years?
A: Back when self-service was in its infancy, display and kiosk programs often sought to offer convenience and novelty to retail. Now, retailers and brands are really capitalizing on the interactive and omnichannel experience. Consumers are starting their buying journey online and continuing it into the store and at the point of purchase. Marketers must now offer kiosk solutions and design around a total experience to make sure they’re meeting these customers’ desires.
Q: What do you see for the future of point of purchase?
A: I’m optimistic about the future of point of purchase and self-service. It will be all about the connected consumer and personalizing the experience to each person’s very specific personal preferences. Technology innovations will further evolve in order for this to continue.
Q: What’s on the horizon for retirement?
A: I’d like to spend more time with my wife, children and grandchildren, of course. Golfing and reading also make the short list, and because I can’t let go that easily, I plan to also continue writing about retail technology.
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Fulton Opens New Water, Sewer Payment Kiosk – Alpharetta-Milton, GA – Fulton County has rolled out the kiosk and a walk-in window for North Fulton residents at the Customer Service Center at 11575 Maxwell Road.
Source: patch.com
JACK – Utility Payment Kiosk gets installed at Fulton County for utility bill payment. Check or Credit Card (no cash)
ALPHARETTA, GA — Residents in North Fulton who need to make payments to their county water and sewer bills will now have a more convenient way to do so.
Fulton County recently opened a new water and sewer bill payment kiosk and walk-in window in Alpharetta. The window and kiosk is located in the same location of the Fulton County Customer Service Center at 11575 Maxwell Road.
Residents can pay by check or credit card at the kiosk
Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc.’s newest account executive Pete Balistrieri brings more than two decades of experience working with global brands on integrated marketing campaigns. His extensive understanding of targeted brand strategies and consumer preferences allows him to partner with his clients to effectively impact their customers’ purchasing decisions. Pete is based out of Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc.’s headquarters near Milwaukee.
Bill Payment Kiosks by Frank Mayer and Associates, Inc.
Interactive Retail Display Solutions by Frank Mayer
Wendys Kiosks Update – TheStreet talks exclusively with Wendy’s CEO Todd Penegor about how he is trying to reinvent the food ordering process. Click here for full interview. Below are some of the points covered.
Some points covered and made by Penegor:
McDonalds Kiosk- website disputes claim Wendy’s replaced workers with kiosks
Wendy’s, McDonald’s – food kiosk tests not tied to minimum wage battle
Wendy’s Serves Up Big Kiosk Expansion As Wage Hikes Hit Fast Food
Wendy’s Serves Up Big Kiosk Expansion As Wage Hikes Hit Fast Food
http://www.phillyvoice.com/wendys-mcdonalds-say-kiosk-tests-not-tied-minimum-wage-battle/
With another successful year at the National Restaurant Association Show under our belts (our 13th!), we gathered the most talked about technology trends from the show to share – just in case you missed it…
1. Third-party delivery replacement
Restaurant operators have come across many issues with third-party delivery companies: loss of brand value, high commission cost, data usage, etc. That’s why companies like ShiftPixystood out this year as a self-delivery option that allows clients to use their own employees to make deliveries.
2. The Touchscreen Drive-Thru
Self-order isn’t limited to the indoor variety: meet the self-order drive-thru. The Touchscreen Drive-Thru introduces huge operational efficiencies, allowing chains to redirect labor full-tilt towards fulfillment. Not to mention, the technology has been refined over the course of a decade: “NEXTEP SYSTEMS displayed its fifth generation, drive-thru self-order kiosk, which automatically adjusts the center of the touchscreen to the height of the customer in their car. The touchscreen adjusts as soon as the customer touches it. The system also automatically adjusts the brightness of the touchscreen to the level of outdoor light. Additionally, the kiosk includes a built-in air conditioning unit.”
3. Food at faster speeds
It was all about speed in terms of fulfillment this year. Devices that prepare food in seconds like the Antunes JS-1000 Steamer, which can make scrambled eggs in 12 seconds, gave operators something exciting to look forward to: less wait time for customers.
Self-order menus with endless custom options are giving customers the control they crave. Whether because of dietary restrictions or particular preferences, guests are able to seamlessly create the perfect, customized meal in a few taps with NEXTEP kiosks. This year, it was clearer than ever that self-order design matters. Many POS companies jumped at the chance to say they could offer self-order, but very few were able to execute kiosk software that looks beautiful, answers guests’ questions before they even have to ask, and works seamlessly with the rest of the operation.
5. Going digital for streamlined operations
Digitally-enhanced self-service has taken over not just as a way to order, but in every aspect of the restaurant experience. The Coca-Cola Freestyle 9100, for example, was debuted this year with new features that create an interactive experience for users. Users can download the Freestyle mobile app, connect to the machine via Bluetooth, and pour their own beverage mix from their phone.
More Pictures from NRA
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Craig is a longtime writer of technical stories and documentation for many companies. He has 25 years of experience in the industry |
The two companies join forces to pave the path for the future of interactive technology
This acquisition positions ZIVELO as the first interactive experience provider to now offer a comprehensive suite of powerful software development tools on top of its proven hardware product line and services offering. Healey Cypher, co-founder & CEO of Oak Labs, will be the new CEO of ZIVELO and Ziver Birg, founder & CEO of ZIVELO, will serve as Executive Chairman.
“People don’t realize how frequently they use kiosks,” said Cypher. “Public-computing is becoming ubiquitous as customers demand easy, self-service experiences that don’t require downloading an app. However, historically building and deploying kiosk programs has been way too hard. The new ZIVELO introduces the first kiosk software developer kit on top of our beautiful product line. Building a kiosk experience has never been easier.”
Credence Research recently reported that the kiosk market is a $6B+ industry, and is poised to grow past $30B by 2025 as self-service technology adoption continues to grow across key verticals globally. Well documented business cases tie kiosks to 30% basket-lift, increased efficiency, enhanced data collection, and higher productivity per associates.
“With this acquisition, we will now offer advanced software solutions which, combined with our wide range of products, has the potential to transform how this industry operates. We can now solve our customers’ largest kiosk program challenges and better deliver the business results they seek,” said Birg. “As a veteran of this industry, I have never been so excited about where we are headed.”
About ZIVELO
ZIVELO’s mission is to revolutionize the way brands use technology to interact with their consumers on-premise and in the physical world. Founded in 2008, ZIVELO has rapidly grown to become the leading self-service technology brand offering a sleek and sophisticated product design, intuitive user experience, and cutting edge modular hardware solutions. In 2018, ZIVELO acquired Oak Labs, the creators of OakOS – the world’s first operating system for public computing experiences. Through the acquisition, ZIVELO now provides brands with an end-to-end solution for the roll-out of kiosks and digital signage. For more information, please visit http://www.olea.com/.
Eunice Coughlin Just wanted to share our recent experience with kiosks in McDonald’s. We were at a McDonald’s in Waco, TX on Easter weekend (Sunday) and people were using the kiosks. The problem was that there were not enough kitchen staff to fulfill the orders that were coming in from the kiosks and the regular order takers. People were waiting a good 10-15 minutes for their food. Hopefully, these kinks will be worked out soon. Maybe a solution: disable the kiosks when there’s not enough kitchen staff?