Excerpt from Canadian Vending magazine May 2020 — Kiosk sales are expected to accelerate post-pandemic, due to affordability of its footprint and sanitary interface, when compared to a crowded store.
Take-Aways
- Kiosks are safer than dealing with people
- Vending machines sell tangible goods
- Customers like to customize orders, and preferably via machine than person.
- Business orders for self-service and related are growing quickly. Below is some actual business data illustrating in real time the opportunities.
Self-Service Kiosk Trends
This is using the number of RFP and RFQs issued by local, city, county, state and federal agencies over the last few years. 2020 is proving to be the highest ever – Craig Keefner with KMA.
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Vending Research
Here is a look at the US and Vending. Current opportunities are factored at $3B. Vending is a very fast growing sector — Craig Keefner with KMA
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Excerpt:
Imagine a wild scenario where your business is on solid ground and then inexplicably, your entire team is unavailable because the government has mandated that they not come to work. If you’d read that statement a few months ago, you might have rolled your eyes. As you read it now, it likely resonates.
Black swan events are defined as events that nobody believes will happen yet somehow, they come to pass. Black swan birds exist, but for many years were considered to be fantasy creatures much like the unicorn — until black swans were discovered alive and well in Australia. Wars, recessions and health care crises like the one we’ve all just experienced are considered to be black swan events. Nobody believes they will happen and when they do, they appear suddenly and with notable economic consequences.
As this article is being written, the Coronavirus Pandemic is at its height but one thing has become abundantly clear — those businesses with multiple revenue streams and retail channels are better positioned to survive. As businesses move forward and rebuild, can kiosk technology offer an important way to develop stability?
How are kiosks different from vending?
If you sell a sandwich that’s stored in a machine and dispensed after payment, that’s vending. If you sell a sandwich at a micro market where the customer picks it up from a display and then pays for it — that’s a kiosk. Vending machines often have a kiosk attached but kiosks aren’t always connected to vending machines. Kiosks can definitely ride a fine line in terms of vending as they can make a sale of a non-tangible item like a reservation or dispense a ticket, but kiosks often sell information or services where vending machines sell tangible goods.