Customer Experience

2021 Kiosk Marketplace Census Report: 2020 – a year of challenge and innovation

While much of the technology that went into action in 2020 already developed pre-COVID-19, innovations such as touchless transaction and biometric identity verification found new use as customers scrambled to address safety concerns.

February 17, 2021 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

2020 was a year to remember. A year when the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world's health and economies. And a year the self-service kiosk industry was forced into overdrive on two fronts: responding to the loss of business caused by customer location closures, and the need to provide customers new ways to keep visitors and employees safe from the highly contagious virus.

The 2021 Kiosk Marketplace Census Report examines this monumental year in detail and offers insight into what promises to be a great future resulting from the technology innovation that let loose in 2020.

The report includes 45 charts and is divided into five industry segments: user organizations that host kiosks (retailers, consumer brands, governments, restaurants, gaming establishments and transportation services); kiosk hardware manufacturers; kiosk software manufacturers; kiosk value added resellers and kiosk component manufacturers.

2020 marked the first year the self-service kiosk industry did not post a sales gain in the four years Kiosk Marketplace has published its annual Census Report. Global sales of interactive kiosks, which do not include ATMs and refreshment and amusement vending machines, totaled $10.6 billion in 2020, marking a decline from the $11.9 billion in 2019.

Despite the loss, kiosk product development reached a fever pitch, demonstrated by the continuous product announcements throughout the year in Kiosk Marketplace. Hundreds of new players entered the kiosk market to address the heightened demand for self-service as a way to improve customer safety.

The demand for personal protective equipment, temperature and health screening, retail pickup lockers, touchless transaction technology and improved sanitation technology were among the areas that fostered self-service innovation in 2020.

The 73-page census includes statistics on the industry's size, operating metrics and outlook.

The statistics are based on 172 completed questionnaires filled out by Kiosk Marketplace readers in November and December of 2020, as well as reader interviews. Readers were asked to provide information on the number of installations, plans for future deployments, business mix, investment in research and development, operating costs, kiosk content strategy, return on investment, sales methodology, outlook on technology, level of optimism and perceived challenges.

The report is available for purchase at the Kiosk Marketplace online store. To order the report, click here.

For an update on how the coronavirus pandemic has affected kiosks, click here.

Customer Experience