Top 5 self-service kiosk trends

Self-service technology is an increasingly important trend in retail that improves the shopping experience, provides additional customer service and increases customer flow. Self-service kiosks are a great way to offer an express self-service experience to your customers. Self-service is becoming increasingly popular as customers become more self-sufficient, because convenience and are looking for a fast payment and ordering experience. We are now living in an increasingly individualistic society, where everyone expects personal service on demand. A self-service machine can capitalize on this trend in all kinds of different markets; for almost any service-oriented business, there is a clear benefit to using a kiosk! Perhaps you are already familiar with self-ordering kiosks at fast food chains, or you might have used a self-check in kiosk in a hotel and enjoyed the customer friendly experience that it provides. In supermarkets, retailers, shops, and clothes shops you will increasingly encounter information kiosks or self-service ordering kiosks. In short, you can use kiosks in many ways to deliver an optimal shopping experience for your customers.

Pan Oston is an established expert for all types of kiosks. Every day all our specialists work proactively to create better kiosk solutions for our customers, that improve the customer experience. All of Pan Oston's self-service technology experts are committed to developing solutions that facilitate optimal interactions between businesses and their customers. To continue supporting our customers in the best way possible with ever improved kiosks, our Innovation & Design department is always on the lookout for the latest trends. What can we do to optimize the shopping experience further, for example? In this article, we explore five of the latest self-service kiosk trends.

AUTOMATED SELF-SERVICE CHECKOUT AND INVENTORY MANAGEMENT WITH MACHINE VISION

Just imagine in the future you won't have to scan anything at the self-service checkout. You will be able to pick up the product that you need from the shelf in the shop/store and pay for it automatically, without having to do any scanning or queuing at a checkout or kiosk. With machine vision technology, this is very much possible! Although this technology is not very developed yet, it has shown great promise for the future and it could well be set to revolutionize the checkout process. Machine vision helps computers to recognize products in photos and videos and automatically complete the checkout when the customer leaves the store. Customers can select products from the shop/store without having to checkout at a physical self-service checkout kiosk. In addition, machine vision may help with retail inventory management in the future.

Machine vision technology has not yet been developed to the level where we can automatically checkout or manage retail inventories. Despite this, we are already using this technology and are seeking to play a part in shaping the future direction of it. Pan Oston have already gained experience with machine vision and kiosks, using technology that can recognize fresh produce and meals without a barcode. In the future, we will continue to keep a close eye on machine vision technology, so we can apply any new developments to our range of award-winning kiosks.

24/7 SHOPPING AT CONVENIENCE STORES/SHOPS

24/7 shopping in our fast-paced society is not a luxury, but increasingly an expectation for consumers alike. Consumers order a significant number of products online, which is easily possible 24/7, but for some products they still prefer to visit a physical store/shop. In this case, retailers that can open their stores/shops 24 hours a day, seven days a week are able to secure additional valuable sales and be there for their customers whenever they need them. It is now possible to deliver this with 24/7 convenience stores/shops. These stores /shops are often known as convenience shops, convenience stores or corner shops. This form of shop, which is essentially a mini supermarket is making a comeback in a modern guise. Large retailers and supermarket chains are using convenience shops to bring a limited, but carefully selected range of products closer to their customers. For example, SPAR recently opened its first one-store: a converted shipping container that it can position anywhere to provide consumers with food and drink at any time of day. It is in many ways similar to food vans that used to serve remote communities with essential items such as bread and milk.

A 24/7 convenience shop/store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At Tegut's TEO convenience shop, customers use Pan Oston's ESSENCE kiosk as a self-scanning checkout. Tegut made a video about how shopping and checkout work at their convenience store.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/A903nBk1is4?rel=0&showinfo=0&controls=0

CONVENIENT SHOPPING WITH VENDING MACHINES AND SELF-ORDERING KIOSKS

What do we all find annoying about food shopping? For many people, it is having to walk through the entire shop for that one product you can't find. In the future, this frustrating element of shopping will be a thing of the past thanks to vending machines. Vending machines were previously also called picking robots and are used to dispense food items, specific products, or packages. If you need a small amount of food shopping or a top-up food shop? Why not order it from a self-service ordering kiosk and the vending machine will collect all the products that you have ordered. By working in conjunction with product vending machines, a kiosk can fulfill multiple different roles. For example, it can serve as a check in kiosk and self-ordering kiosk, which allows the vending machine to focus on collecting your click & collect food shopping and delivering this to you in a single trip.

An interactive kiosk can also become an endless aisle, which saves your customers from a long and frustrating search for specific products in your shop/store. For example, consider a customer, who is looking for a specific screw in the DIY store. This can be an endless search looking through screws with different coatings, sizes and drives. With a self-ordering kiosk and vending machine, a customer can grab the screw and drop it off with just a few easy clicks.This saves the customer a lot of time and significantly shortens the customer journey which will also inevitably improve their customer experience. Finally, a self-service ordering kiosk can also dispense age-restricted products in a safe and secure way. When someone orders cigarettes from a vending machine, the kiosk can ask for identification (ID) to confirm that they are eligible to purchase the item. This prevents employees from having to complete this time-consuming and sometimes confrontational task, freeing them up to focus on providing great customer service.

Pan Oston worked with Knapp and Kreisler on a project where our Red Dot Design award winning kiosk, the BLUE FIRE served as a self-ordering kiosk for food items. Their customers are able to place an order for their food shopping at the kiosk and complete the checkout process by making a payment for their order. Behind the scenes, the vending machine went to work to collect all the products and deliver them in a single visit. The customer could then collect their food shopping at Kreisler's counter.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/zoq2OduClsk?rel=0&showinfo=0&controls=0

INSTANT PEOPLE RECOGNITION THROUGH BIOMETRICS

Have you ever heard of biometrics? Although it may sound like something out of a science fiction film it is more commonplace than we think, and we encounter biometric technology fairly often throughout our daily lives to complete simple tasks like unlocking our phone/laptop and even paying for our lunch in a canteen. This technology can identify individuals using their biometric credentials which is unique to each individual. Common forms of biometric technology include facial recognition and fingerprints. We are likely to see this emerging trend ever more often in the future, including in interactive kiosks. An interactive retail kiosk with biometric technology can be used for login, loyalty and payment applications. In Asia, retailers are already using biometrics for payment, but throughout the rest of the world we mostly use this technology for login or loyalty purposes. The technology identifies people by their fingerprints, facial recognition or from a palm reading. Amazon is already using palm reading biometrics in its Amazon Go stores. Customers are able to pay for their shopping quickly and easily by holding their hand above a digital scanner. The scanner then scans the palm of their hand and automatically makes a payment for the purchase if a correct identification is made.

So, how is Pan Oston applying this trend with our award-winning digital kiosks? 20Face is working on developing facial recognition technology for various hardware solutions. Together with 20Face, Pan Oston is working towards introducing facial recognition technology to different markets in the future. It could be a convenient solution for access control for events, for example. Facial recognition saves businesses a lot of time and it is hygienic, innovative, welcoming and less susceptible to fraud. Adopting a kiosk with biometric technology will definitely improve the customer journey and customer flow.

Now you might be wondering: what about my privacy? During the development of this software, 20Face has placed privacy as their top priority. Pan Oston is also passionate about maintaining a high level of privacy throughout everything that we do. While speed, efficiency and personalization are important, nothing can override the importance of great security and privacy.

THE CONVENIENCE OF INSTANT APPS

Almost every shop or retailer has an app to deliver information, loyalty programs or discounts to their customers. The disadvantage is that there are so many apps that you have to download on your smartphone and the number of apps that you require is likely to increase further. You may not need to wait much longer for an innovative solution. The upcoming introduction of instant apps for Android or App clips for Apple devices is set to solve this issue. This new form of apps uses a small part of the whole app which saves a customer from having to download the entire app. Despite this, you can still use all of the functionality of the full app at your fingertips. In addition to instant apps, there are also progressive web apps. Progressive web apps are applications that operate within web browsers, such as Google Chrome or Safari.

Imagine this: you have to pay for your car parking ticket to exit the car park. You pass the parking meter with your phone and a payment screen appears on your phone, allowing you to pay as you walk back to your car. That is a small taste of the great convenience offered by an instant app. This technology can also be integrated into an interactive kiosk within the retail environment. Using an instant app is not only efficient, it is also very user-friendly and it is a great way to enhance your customer service. The key advantage of an instant app is that it encourages customers with smartphones to interact with your kiosk and instant app on impulse, which can significantly boost your sales.

What do our top 5 self-service kiosk trends mean for your business?

The use of technology in the retail sector is evolving at an ever-faster pace. Alongside this, the wishes and demands of customers are constantly changing. This makes staying up to date a challenge that retailers and their managers face. You want to provide the best possible service to your customers, so why not choose an experienced and forward-thinking partner company that is at the cutting edge of self-service kiosk technology? At Pan Oston, we are continuously developing new interactive kiosks that use the very latest innovative technologies. We are passionate about delivering modern digital kiosks that help retailers to respond to customer requirements in an agile way.

Why not find out more about our award-winning self-service kiosk solutions and how they could help your business? Meet our family of kiosks which includes the Red Dot Design award winner, the BLUE FIRE and our ESSENCE kiosks.

Contact Pan Oston

Our team of 165+ specialists with over 50 years of experience are ready to help you successfully adopt self-service kiosks. Our client base includes Subway, Starbucks, M&S, SPAR, Churchills and BRP Systems. We would love to welcome your business into our group of clients. Contact our UK sales team to discuss your requirements with one of our specialists.