This article originally published in Self-Service World magazine's special section, FOCUS: Retail Self-Service, July 2007.
The kiosk industry is booming, especially in the retail sector. When digital photography kiosks are included in the count of retail kiosks, fully 50 percent of all kiosks fall into this category.The key to successful kiosk deployments -- assuming, of course, that the kiosks are working -- is location, location, location. One of the keys to successful placements is a true understanding of shopper habits. You may think you know all about shopping patterns and place the kiosk in what you believe will be the best possible location. Often, deployers discover that usage is far lower than expected. To get some idea why this happens, we will take a look at one of the fast-growing venues for kiosks: supermarkets.
Research was conducted at grocery stores in the western U.S. by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. They concentrated on how shoppers use carts. Their findings -- along with real-world examples -- should be considered when planning future kiosk deployments in these types of venues.
Shoppers do not weave up and down each aisle as previously thought. They zigzag to specific aisles, avoiding whole areas of a store. For kiosk deployers, therefore, try to get the best locations: end caps. More people see products displayed at each end of an aisle than anywhere else in a store.
They zip in and zip out. Once they enter an aisle, shoppers rarely make it to the other end. As a result, products in the center of an aisle frequently are ignored.
Summit Research Associates recommends that kiosks not be placed in the middle of an aisle. A good example validating this recommendation was found at Home Depot in a pilot project it conducted at 15 stores along the East Coast.
| One of the keys to successful placements is a true understanding of shopper habits. |
Keep to the right. Just like U.S. drivers, shoppers like to enter a store on the right or turn right as soon as they enter the store. Then shoppers prefer to shop in a counterclockwise direction. A key finding: shoppers who enter on the left spend less time and money shopping.
Avoiding the aisles. Shoppers spend less time in the aisles than assumed; instead, they stick to the perimeter of the store, using it as the main road and making quick side trips to the aisles they need. As a result, products displayed at the ends of the aisles near the perimeter are vital for luring in shoppers.
The highly successful Giant Food Store kiosks, especially the flagship concept store in Camp Hill, Pa., is an excellent example of a project that has followed this advice. The more-than-91,000-square-foot store has 25 kiosks, all situated around the periphery. Customer usage and the number of transactions continues to grow each month.
Kiosk professionals wanting to become successful players in this exciting space, along with companies who want to launch top-notch deployments, are well-advised to heed some of the lessons described here. Summit, as well as Wharton, has reached other conclusions and has more suggestions -- many dealing with self-checkout -- that will be addressed in a future article.
The writer is president of Summit Research Associates Inc.
