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Kiosks.org director makes television appearance

Greg Swistak, executive director of Kiosks.org Association, recently appeared on the MarketWatch television network to discuss the state of the industry - and what big things lie ahead.

April 24, 2005 by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

Greg Swistak, executive director of Kiosks.org Association, appeared on the MarketWatch television network April 13 to discuss the growth and dynamism of the kiosk industry.

In an interview conducted by Ed Crane, the affable Swistak gave a big-picture overview of the industry.

"We believe that the kiosk industry is about a billion dollar business right now," Swistak said. "There are about 500,000 kiosks that have been deployed and are currently rolled out in the United States. That's up from about 200,000 kiosks 10 years ago, and we're projecting that in 10 years, the market will be about 1.4 million kiosks."

Swistak talked about the success of deli kiosks, and the impending prominence of kiosks in quick-serve restaurants. "We're predicting that that's a market that is going to grow very quickly over the next year or so," he said.

Self-service checkout systems were mentioned as kiosk applications that have won the hearts and minds of consumers. "We believe that there are about 20,000 self-serve checkout kiosks already deployed in the U.S. - a very rapid adoption by users. It's my understanding that in some places, those are being used by 50 percent of the people that shop in the stores.

"It's a real paradigm shift that's occurring now in the marketplace - there's actually a preference by many users to go to the self-service route as opposed to having to interface with another person."

When Crane asked why people would want to use a self-service solution rather than deal with a trained professional, Swistak replied, "One of the advantages is speed. ... In the old days I think it was very popular to talk to someone, and spend a little bit of time socializing. Those kinds of things just don't seem to happen as much as they did in the past. These days people are in a hurry, people behind the counter are not high-paid employees and may not be very well trained. So there are some advantages to dealing with a machine, being able to do it yourself as a way to get in and out of the store quickly."

Crane asked Swistak what a company has to gain from using one or more kiosks.

Kiosks.org Association executive director Greg Swistak appears on the MarketWatch television network, April 13.

"Most companies say that it allows them to deploy those employees into other areas of the store where they can be more productive," he replied. He referred to Home Depot, which has reported great success with self-checkout lanes. "The people that used to run those checkout islands are now in the store giving customer service to people." He added that kiosks can enable stores to stay open longer, allow access to product information outside the store, and interface with at-home ordering and home delivery.

Swistak discussed the challenges of multi-channel integration, and the ongoing need to bring a company's various self-service devices into communication with one another in a logical structure. "Integrating all of those different devices into a strategy is one of the challenges that retailers are facing, to try to get a consistent message across to the consumer." He referred to the existing infrastructure in place in the airline industry, which he said has made it relatively easy for kiosks to automate and speed the ticketing and check-in processes - the kiosk and its architecture are simply replacing work that was already being done behind the counter in a tightly structured manner.

When asked what's new and exciting, Swistak pointed to DVD rental kiosks as one emerging tech on the horizon, and briefly touched on the growing importance of digital signage.

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