9th Annual Kiosk Benchmark Study: An NCR Whitepaper

For this, the 9th Annual Kiosk Benchmark Study,we sent email survey invitations to the readers of RIS News, Hospitality Technology, Consumer Goods Technology and Vertical Systems Reseller magazines. As in previous years, screening questions allowed us to gather information from those with no plans to deploy self-service kiosk technology, to discover the reasons behind their decisions. For those currently planning or deploying self-service kiosk technology, the complete survey responses provided a wealth of detail about kiosks’ functions. The majority of survey respondents are from the hospitality and retail industries: a total of 50% from Hospitality (32% lodging plus 18% foodservice), and 47% from retail. And as we have for the past three years, we also included a separate set of survey questions aimed specifically at value added resellers, to get their perspective on kiosks.

Of those respondents with current or planned deployments, the most popular kiosk type provides customer information, chosen by 44% of respondents, and followed by point of sale/self-checkout devices, at 34%. Other major kiosk types include price checker/product information (28%); job recruitment (26%); Internet access/web surfing (24%); and financial services/ATM (22%).

While kiosks’ capabilities continue to expand and their acceptance by consumers continues to rise, investment in the technology has been stalled by the economic recession. Among those respondents providing reasons for delaying or not deploying kiosks, the lack of budget was the top factor: at 41%, it far outstripped the second-highest reason, “Needed Application Does Not Exist,” at 25%.

However, self-service technology in general is poised for significant growth according to our Gartner team, who again this year provided crucial input and analysis of the survey results. The growing number of devices that are well-suited for mobile commerce coincides with the demographic rise of consumers who are capable of, and comfortable with, using technology in virtually every part of their lives.

We’d like to thank Gartner’s Bob Goodwin, Managing Vice President, Transportation and Travel Industry Analyst; Jeff Roster, Vice President, Industry Market Strategies, Retail; and Ken Brant, Research Director, Manufacturing, for their insights. If you have any questions that you would like to see included in next year’s survey, please email them to VSR Editor Regina Ciardiello at: rciardiello@edgellmail.com.