The Six Most Popular
Mini-Kiosk Applications and
Their Business Benefits
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Over the past few years, kiosks have become a highly popular technology option among retailers
and foodservice operators, as well as within the lodging, healthcare, transportation, government,
and gaming markets, to name a few. However, for some potential end-users installing traditional freestanding kiosks is not feasible. In certain cases, cost is an obstacle; in others, the units’ large footprint
makes placement impractical or impossible—but in most instances, customers will seek an alternative.
Mini-kiosks fit the bill perfectly. This eBook explores how and why.
The Mini-Kiosk Alternative
Unquestionably, customers in a wide variety of vertical markets are turning to mini-kiosks for the many
benefits they provide. These include:
• Ergonomic excellence. Mini-kiosks’ compact designs makes them the ideal substitute for
traditional free-standing kiosks. While large kiosks typically occupy an excessive amount of valuable
store real estate, mini-kiosks require little or no floor space. Space that would otherwise be wasted
can be earmarked for more merchandise displays, extra restaurant tables, or other important
purposes, bolstering sales and return on investment.
Additionally, the integrated 2D barcode scanners and customer-facing displays featured on minikiosks allow for a simplified customer check-in process and easy interaction with patrons’ mobile
devices. This is not true of traditional free-standing kiosks, whose size and sometimes cumbersome
displays may make them more difficult or impractical for consumers to navigate.
• Versatility. The dimensions of traditional free-standing kiosks often make it necessary to install
them in less trafficked areas of retail stores, restaurants, and other establishments, minimizing the
return on investment and other advantages provided by these units. But mini-kiosks, with their small
footprint, are highly versatile. They are compact enough to fit into even the most highly trafficked,
fixture-heavy locations within stores, restaurants, shopping malls, building lobbies, events venues,
and the like—affording maximum visibility.
• Functionality. Today’s mini-kiosks rival larger models when it comes to features, touting
everything from user-friendly customer interfaces, rich graphics, and quick online access to receipt/
coupon printing, credit card and barcode reading capabilities, and more. In fact, mini-kiosks
equipped with a touchscreen, integrated printer, card reader, barcode scanner, and other peripherals
can be leveraged as one-stop business centers.
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• Affordability. While mini-kiosks offer the functionality of traditional free-standing kiosks, they are
significantly more affordable than their bulkier counterparts. Feature-rich units cost roughly 25% to
50% less than comparable free-standing units—so functionality need never be sacrificed for savings.
Closing the Deal
Just as mini-kiosk solutions afford several advantages that attract customers, there are multiple minikiosk applications resellers can showcase to close more deals. The top six such applications encompass:
1. Point of sale. Mini-kiosks enhance the retail experience,
increase sales and employee efficiency, and reduce labor
expenditures by functioning as self-service “stations.” At these
“stations,” shoppers might find product and price information,
compare different items in the same category, obtain suggestions
for goods to complement their purchases (for example, wine to
accompany a specific meal), and order merchandise that is not
available in-store, but can be found at the warehouse or even in
another location within the chain. Mini-kiosks can also be used to
generate and dispense coupons, recipes, instructions for product
installation/use, and similar collateral that may have a positive
impact on sales.
In quick-service restaurants and similar establishments,
mini-kiosks give diners the option to order and pay for their
food without employee intervention, reducing wait times, shortening lines at the main counter
(“line-busting”), and increasing customer throughput while decreasing the likelihood of customer
frustration and lost sales.
Increased customer throughput and decreased lost sales also come from implementing mini-kiosks
for the purpose of self-checkout. Long deployed in supermarkets and hypermarkets, self-checkout
mini-kiosks are now being installed in drug, department, specialty retail, and small convenience
stores. Integrated barcode scanners read the labels on customers’ purchases. Payment for items
rung up is then handled by inserting cash or a credit/debit card. The end-result is greater customer
convenience and better management of store traffic and employee resources.
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2. Check-in/check-out. Many hotels now have mini-kiosks where arriving guests can quickly
register, scan their credit cards and receive their room keys, and where departing guests can settle
their accounts to the card on file. In both instances, travelers can bypass long lines at the front
desk and eliminate the need to wrangle with luggage as they await service. In physicians’ offices,
patients can register and complete any necessary paperwork on mini-kiosks in a fraction of the time
needed to do so via manual methods, speeding up their path to the examination room. At airport
departure counters, mini-kiosks function in place of live agents, with passengers answering preboarding questions on the units’ touchscreens, printing out boarding passes, and, if applicable,
presenting their passports by swiping them through an integrated barcode reader. Travelers benefit
from a streamlined check-in process. Carriers benefit from the ability to assist more passengers in
less time using fewer agents.
3. Queuing. Whether they are used in grocery store delicatessens departments, government agency
offices (think the Department of Motor Vehicles), or elsewhere, traditional queuing methods—
including the “honor system” and machines that simply dispense numbered tickets —no longer
suffice. Rather, the deployment of modern technology—preferably, mini-kiosks—is a must.
As already noted, mini-kiosks feature a small footprint. This, coupled with integrated printers
that generate numbered tickets, makes them ideal for environments where consumers “take a
number” and are called in numerical order to receive service. Additionally, recent Web application
development affords an interface between mini-kiosks and mobile devices, enabling consumers
to remotely enter queues from their smartphones. Queuing is consequently handled in a more
organized fashion. There are fewer, if any, disputes concerning the order in which customers should
be served. Additionally, the multiple options for interacting with mini-kiosks lead to shorter lines,
faster customer throughput and, in turn, enhanced customer service.
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4. Ticketing “will-call.” Many consumers like the convenience of ordering movie, sporting event,
and other tickets by telephone or online and picking them up at the venue. Mini-kiosks take such
convenience one step further, automatically printing and dispensing tickets on demand. Once the
credit or debit card used to purchase the tickets has been swiped through an integrated magnetic
stripe reader, the purchasers’ identity is confirmed and the tickets are dispensed. Handling some
or all “will-call” ticket distribution with mini-kiosks instead of through manual means also reduces
staffing needs at the box office.
5. Support for an omni-channel model. Competition is spurring retailers to migrate to an
omni-channel business model, in which their brick-and-mortar stores, websites, catalog divisions,
and other components function as a cohesive unit instead of as disparate entities. Adhering to such
a model ensures that merchants meet the demands of increasingly more educated consumers,
who will quickly defect to competitors rather than tolerating long delivery lead times, waits for
unavailable/back-ordered items, and a lack of consistency in the overall service they receive at
different units of the same chain.
Mini-kiosks permit retailers to better operate in omni-channel mode while simultaneously “working
around” the phenomena of showrooming, wherein consumers peruse merchandise at bricks-andmortar stores, only to purchase it online from price-competitive cyber-merchants. Leveraging minikiosks, retailers can create “endless aisles” where consumers can easily obtain information about
various items as well as browse their websites to find and purchase any desired merchandise that
isn’t available on the shelves. The shopping experience is of the same caliber as consumers would
enjoy at home.
6. Loyalty Programs. Customer-facing mini-kiosks are
also effective tools for administering loyalty programs, which
contribute equally to the high-quality, in-store experience
merchants must offer in order to successfully negotiate the
omni-channel landscape and turn “showroomers” into loyal
customers. Mini-kiosks may be programmed so shoppers
can check in to track their loyalty activities and access
personalized coupon deals, as well as view custom-tailored
digital advertisements on the units’ screens and enjoy
automated point redemption. The latter also enhances the
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shopping experience and promotes customer engagement by eliminating the need for separate
cards and apps that may be forgotten or used only sporadically.
Mini-kiosks function in casinos as touchscreen-based slot machines. They may also be programmed
to administer loyalty programs, with visitors inserting their loyalty cards into slot machines to track
their gaming activity and view available rewards on the units’ touchscreens.
Conclusion
With their extensive complement of features, attractive price tag, suitability for implementation in
multiple markets, and myriad of benefits, mini-kiosks comprise an excellent addition to the technology
toolboxes of end-users in multiple verticals. No matter the vertical segment(s) in which they specialize,
resellers that bring to the table the most popular mini-kiosk applications, rather than limit themselves
to promoting traditional free-standing models, stand to significantly increase their own revenues and
expand their client base in the short and long term alike.
About Star Micronics
Star Micronics America,Inc.is a subsidiary of Star Micronics Company Ltd., one of the largest
printer and POS manufacturers world-wide. Star Micronics also manufactures high­precision
machine tools and precision parts.Star Micronics Company Ltd.is ranked as one of the Top 50
“Most Stable” Japanese companies on the Japanese Nikkei. For more information, visit
www.starmicronics.com or call 800-782-7636.
© Copyright 2015 Star Micronics America, Inc. All rights reserved.
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