Self-Service Outlook Research for Retail Growth

Tech Providers Optimistic for 2025

Elliot Maras has written about self-service for 30+ years.

Self-service innovation continues to create opportunities to make buying and selling products and services easier and more convenient. Thanks in large measure to rising consumer acceptance of self-service technology, a labor shortage for traditional retail, and the evolving capabilities of self-service technology.

Technology providers interviewed in recent weeks by KioskIndustry.org agreed the outlook for growth has never been better, despite concerns about hardware price increases caused by Trump’s tariffs.

A growing appreciation for the benefits of self-service continues to drive growth at retail and in more recent verticals such as healthcare, public transit, car washes, auto dealerships, and EV charging stations.

“We expect strong growth to continue at least through 2027, driven by labor shortages, increasing consumer preference for self-service, and ongoing digital transformation across industries,” said Anthony Hunckler, head of marketing and design at Pyramid Computer GmbH, a manufacturer of automation and digitalization hardware. “However, we also anticipate that the market will shift from just volume growth to smart deployment, where analytics, personalization and interoperability will define success.”

For Pyramid Computer GmbH, the strongest growth continues in retail, quick-service restaurants and healthcare.

Retail continues to command the fastest growth, fueled by demand for self-checkout and product information kiosks. In QSR, order-and-pay kiosks with loyalty program integration have seen significant uptake.

Meanwhile, Hunckler said the healthcare sector has embraced patient check-in and triage kiosks, especially in outpatient and diagnostic centers, aiming to streamline operations and reduce administrative burden.

“Consumers are much more adept at doing things on their own than in the past, from ordering on Amazon to grabbing an Uber,” said Bruce Rasmussen, director of sales, strategic verticals at Ingenico, the ecosystem enabler and technology partner in payments acceptance. “They use their phones to do all these things, but they want that same independence in brick-and-mortar stores, even if assistance from employees is available. Consumers have a desire for a different way to interface, and they want something secure and familiar to them.”

The “return-to-office” movement following COVID lockdowns has fueled the demand for self-service (such as vending and micro markets) in workplaces, Rasmussen said. “There are a lot of return-to- office initiatives, and that means people need breakrooms again.”

Retail self-checkout is the only sector currently at a high cashless adoption rate, Rasmussen said. Transportation, car wash, amusement, laundromat, and micro market are at around 50% adoption. In addition, EV charging, parking, car washes and lottery are also fast-growth areas.

“Parking and transit are such logical places for self-service,” he said. “I don’t know that we can expect hypergrowth, but it reflects the current mindset, If a company is going to add a new property, or refurbish and existing parking facility, they’re going to put in some sort of kiosk for ticket vending, self-service for pay on foot, or pay at checkout.”

“We’ve also seen a lot of growth in lottery because laws are changing and allowing credit and debit card payments,” he said. “Lottery payment providers recognize this opportunity, so they’re extending their reach to allow consumers and gamers to purchase lottery tickets in new ways, mainly at self-service kiosks.”

There has also been growth in “hybrid” attended/unattended use cases in retail venues, Rasmussen said. Ingenico’s recently introduced AXIUM CX9000 all-in-one cash register is perfect for retailers with that operating model. The CX9000 handles any retail situation from checkout to inventory management, and it’s designed to save counter space while speeding up checkout times to improve customer satisfaction.

The fastest growing verticals for Crane Payment Innovations, a provider of automated payment solutions, include the kiosk and unattended retail sectors, said Jillian Dabovich, the company’s director of business development, repair and maintenance solutions. The players in these sectors need some type of task-taking interface in order to maximize the number of guests or clients that they’ll have visit their store or kiosk.

For example, eyebot, a provider of self-service eye exams, has tapped CPI to be its field service technician and white glove installer for its kiosk. A customer can walk up to the eyebot and in 90 seconds get a thorough eye exam and know what type of glasses they need.

“They’re building these because there’s an obvious shortage of doctors,” Dabovich said. “They’re filling a gap in personnel needed in order to help people with their eye care. They’re meeting people where they’re at in their busy days,” such as in malls and stores.

For Unattended Card Payments Inc., a provider of hardware and payment solutions for both attended and unattended card payment terminals, evolving payment technology continues to play an essential role in driving self-service, said Rob Chilcoat, president and co-owner.

“Cashless is people’s preference these days,” said Chilcoat. “From a machine owner/operator’s perspective, cashless is preferable because bill acceptors and coin acceptors get jammed. You have to be out there clearing jams constantly, and they need to be emptied when the bill acceptor gets full and the coin hopper gets full. You also have the possibility of them being vandalized. You have to over-engineer a kiosk if it’s going to have a bill acceptor or coin acceptor and be out there in the world unsupervised.”

The company is having a good year and is on track to surpass 2024 sales.

Unattended Card Payments recently began offering Nexgo’s N62, a mini terminal POS powered by the Android 10 operating system and Quad-Core Cortex A53 processor. Being both MDB and pulse compatible, the terminal supports small value transactions, which are especially common in vending machines.

The move into the smaller transaction space makes sense in light of the consumer’s growing acceptance of self-service for even smaller item purchases.

“The Nexgo solution is directly certified to TSYS, which is nice,” Chilcoat said for the N62 terminal. “That means there’s no gateway in the middle. You don’t have to worry about another hand being out in terms of the cost of ownership of your payment system.”

UCP also continues to see growth in the public transportation sector as infrastructure investment expands nationwide. The amusement, car wash and auto dealership sectors also continue to grow.

Government investment in transportation infrastructure over the past year has also driven parking and electric vehicle charging installations for Datacap Systems Inc., said Justin Zeigler, the company’s vice president of product strategy. The company is a North American provider of integrated payments solutions servicing independent software vendors, ISOs and payment facilitators.

While Trump’s tariffs have raised concerns about hardware price increases, they have also strengthened customer appreciation for manufacturer service capabilities, CPI’s Dabovich noted.

“There’s been an uptick on it (price concerns), but I will say that it has helped from the service standpoint of people really understanding the investment they’ve made in the hardware and the technology in trying to make sure that they’ve got a plan in place to keep it running as long as possible,” Dabovich said.

More Self-Service Outlook 2025 Resources

Contacts

Anthony with Pyramid — https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyhunckler/
Jill with Crane — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillian-dabovich-1954067/
Robert with UCP Inc. — https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-c-81863113/
Bruce with Ingenico — https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-rasmussen-4627723/
Justin with Datacap — https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-zeigler-9b174553/

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