EQUIPMENT & DESIGN Kiosks

Streamlined Service WORKING WITH RETAILERS, KIOSK SUPPLIE ARE GROWING THEIR SUPERMARKET PRESE By Bob Ingram

Ith speed and convenience increasing• Key Takeaways ly demanded by time-pressed grocery • Supermarkets are beginning to shoppers, kiosks are becoming ubiqui• offer a more technology-driven tous in the supermarket space. experience for consumers, "The increased popularity within including additional touchscreens the grocery channels is just the lat• and consumer engagement points within the environment. est use case for kiosk acceptance for ln-store product experience and • More kiosks will be tied to transactions," says David Anzia, SVP mobile apps to offer even greater of sales at Grafton, Wis.-based Frank flexibility and convenience for Mayer and Associates. consumers. Anzla's firm teamed with The Kroger • Retailers must be able to provide Co. to introduce Scan-Bag-Go kiosks in 400 of the Cincinnati-based grocer's streamlined, user-friendly stores this year. This technology lets consumers scan barcodes using hand• systems and processes, with held scanners or smartphone apps before heading to the self-checkout kiosks. customization and personalization as important features. "We are a strategic partner who understands retail channels," Anzia says. "We design customer-centric kiosks that elicit Interaction. With technology moving at • Footprints must be reduced warp speed, we see projects from retailers and brands accelerating In 2018." whenever possible to free up Frank Mayer sees a more technology-driven experience for consumers in the space on the selling floor.

PROGRESSIVE GROCER March 2018 83 EQUIPMENT & DESIGN Kiosks

lost from DVD sales and rentals, which are services that many retailers believe are Grocery store kiosks have to becoming obsolete. be about making customers' shopping Coin of the Realm experiences better and more pleasant Meanwhile, Bellevue, Wash.-based Coin- — a differentiating factor — and not star has kiosks installed at most national just about the store's bottom line." grocery retailers, owning and operating —William Pymm, Redyref International 20,000 kiosks worldwide, with about 17,000 In the United States. "Today, there's a Colnstar kiosk within five miles of 90 percent of the U.S. popula• supermarket arena that will Include additional touch- tion," according to Thien Truong, chief rev• screens and consumer engagement points within the enue officer at Colnstar. "Multiple products environment, Anzia says. are available on most Colnstar kiosks that "The engagement will not just occur when the con• Include coin-to-cash, no-fee gift cards and sumer enters the store or checks out," he emphasizes. a charity donation option." "It will be Immersive throughout the space." Truong says that Coinstar recently mod• ernized Its technology platform to an agile On the Money cloud-based system, and that the company Eden Prairie, Minn.-based grocery retailer/whole• has also launched a program, through a saler Supervalu Inc. has selected Cummins Allison's partnership with Provision, to deliver 3D Money Machine 2 self-service coin counter and its hologram advertising and consumer product associated coin redemption programs because of coupons via its existing kiosk. the flexibility, highly responsive sales and support, "Coinstar has done pilot-testing with and opportunities to increase coin redemption rev• third-party partners to provide cash-out enue without increasing user fees. capabilities at the Colnstar kiosk," he says. Additionally, U.K. food retailer Tesco has Installed "Colnstar will also be launching cash-In 160 Money Machine 2 self-service coin machines in its capabilities. This gives online retailers, digital smaller-format Tesco Metro outlets, notes Jim Weaks, financial services vendors, bill pay compa• VP of Mount Prospect, III.-based Cummins Allison's nies and others a means to deliver or accept self-service coin business unit, "increasing the profit• cash. Consumers want convenient locations ability of their self-service coin program." to perform financial services without long Further, according to Weaks, Fieasor's, a grocer wait times. We believe that we can provide a based in Tulsa, Okla., has experienced double-digit great customer experience by moving these growth in its coin volume since installing Cummins transactions to a self-service-based system." Allison machines In its 19 stores. "This Increase Is Truong sees self-service kiosks as an a direct result of a decrease In downtime with the Important and growing component of the Money Machine 2 machines, as compared to supermarket landscape, observing that In Reasor's previous coin-counting equip• other countries such as Japan, there's a ment," he says. proliferation of kiosks offering a vast number Coin redemption kiosks keep cash in of products and services, and that one stores, Weaks notes, and grocers can might see an entire row of kiosks at the front further tap Into this by promoting store spe• of a Japanese retail store. In addition, with cials or high-margin items through on-screen the explosion of mobile computing, Colnstar advertising on the coin machines. expects more and more kiosks will be tied Also, Cummins Allison has four flexible procurement to mobile apps to offer even greater flexibility options through which grocers can buy, lease, rent or Redyref Interactive's T series, and convenience for consumers. place a machine free of charge, offering more choices for top, is for grocery pharmacies, up to 8 percent profitability potential. while the Money Machine 2, from Allison Cummins, counts Custom Kiosks Another benefit to retailers Weaks points out Is that coins. Peerless-AV offers a self-ordering/checkout while the costs of purchasing coins from a bank can run kiosk for mounting to a countertop or floor, up to $500 a month, by using recycled coins from their and floor-standing landscape kiosks for self-service machines, grocers can eliminate these costs. education and wayfindlng. By offering differentiated and convenient self-service "All of Peerless-AV's kiosks have the options, he adds, grocers can make up for revenue ability to be modified with components

84 progressivegrocer.com like printers, barcode scanners, credit card readers and works with retailers that Invest In kiosks to streamline stereo systems, as well as branded In a color or decorated store operations related to productivity, flow and over• with vinyl graphics," explains Rob Melner, kiosk business unit head reduction. Job application kiosks and dell-ordering manager of the Aurora, III.-based company. kiosks are two examples she gives. The Increased popularity of supermarket kiosks can be largely at• "Our remote-monitoring capabilities enable us to tributed to the role of Mlllennials in today's society, Meiner asserts. receive real-time alerts on the system connectivity [and] "Mlllennials are perceptive and more educated," he says. "They use software application status, as well as component-level their hand-held devices to meet all their needs. Whether it's using the status," she says, permitting the retail platforms to run Uber app for a ride or ordering a meal through a foodservlce app like at 98.5 percent uptime or better. Seamless, technology Is how they get things done. They are plugged Kiosk Information Systems recently unveiled a kiosk into their devices and are disrupting traditional purchasing patterns." for gift cards on demand that might be found at the To appeal to this generation, according to Melner, retailers are contin• supermarket front end. uously looking to create a seamless customer-facing retail experience, The company "manufactures the Ideas & In• and one way they've accomplished this Is by improving the payment novations gift card Buy-Sell-Trade platform, which experience through self-checkout kiosks and advanced digital payment helps consumers buy, activate, personalize, reload, technologies. "To retain this audience," he says, "retailers must be able exchange/consolidate print cards on demand, while to provide streamlined, user-friendly systems and processes." watching a targeted advertising screen with custom• Peerless-AV designs Its kiosks to be complementary to the ized promotions," Madeson says. brand in any space where they're Implemented, Melner notes, to The screen format will scan a customer's character• save space and not be intrusive in the retail location, to be eas• istics and age and then play targeted advertising spe• ily Installed In a few hours so as not to affect shoppers, to meet cifically for them, which will allow the stores to gain public-safety requirements by passing dynamic tip tests, and to valuable Insights Into their customers' shopping require minimal to no maintenance from supermarket staff. habits, according to Madeson. In the future, Melner says, interactive kiosk solutions will allow "The screens will also help the customers retailers to offer a three-dimensional experience to customers, learn more about the store's promotions and rather than a simple self-serve. receive valuable coupons and discounts from "While more expensive than mobile apps," he explains, "kiosks will a variety of their brands," she adds. serve the dual purpose of advertising, alerting the busy consumer In the future, Madeson says, retailers will more to overlooked or immediate needs at home. A kiosk can promote a aggressively integrate self-service options into their special on bakery goods, fruit or fully cooked meals. They also could dell and bakery services, and "we would also not be mimic the shopping experience, projecting specific items on a wall or surprised to see more Department of Motor Vehicle through virtual reality, so commuters see them as If in the store." kiosks in supermarkets, enabling shoppers to perform common transactions such as fine payment and regis• Less is More tration and tag renewal. Kiosk Information Systems has clients where these state DMV services are offered In Redyref Interactive, In Rlverdale, N.J., offers kiosk hardware/ nontradltional locations like supermarkets. It provides a enclosures for telemedlcine that are used in grocery pharmacies, valued service for the shopper while Increasing ln-store allowing customers to speak to health care providers; kiosks that foot traffic for the retailer." can be used with software for recipe suggestions and can print grocery lists to match; and kiosks that can be programmed to al• low customized orders in different departments. Cut to the Capers Redyref has added kiosks with smaller footprints with the same Mike James, president of Kiosk Group Inc., In Fred• functionality as larger units, because, as William Pymm, SVP and erick, Md., observes, "Since the Apple IPhone burst managing partner, notes, "it's Imperative that footprints be reduced onto the scene In 2010, consumers have gotten very whenever possible to free up space on the selling floor." comfortable interacting with touchscreens; plus users Redyref envisions the future of supermarket kiosks as having are increasingly using kiosks for quick-service restau• more to do with customization and personalization, Pymm says, rants and customer service In retail." than their current primary use for checkout. His company has provided kiosk software and "Grocery store kiosks have to be about making customers' hardware for Whole Foods Market, Kroger and Publix shopping experiences better and more pleasant - a differentiating Super Markets, among others, and "we concentrate factor - and not just about the store's bottom line," he concludes. on providing low-cost tablet kiosks housed In heavy- duty enclosures." Card Sharp Kiosk Group is currently developing a new line of Supermarket kiosks are popular particularly for convenience of ADA-frlendly kiosks, according to James, who, when adjunct nongrocery services that can be handled under one roof, asked about the future, quips: "Wow - I certainly like coin-counting and lottery ticket sales. hope somebody comes out with grocery Item Cheryl Madeson, marketing and communications VP at Louisville, locators. These are sorely needed! Where are the capers?" PG Colo.-based Kiosk Information Systems, says that her company PROGRESSIVE GROCER March 2018 85