NRF exhibitors, part 3: Self-service and transactions

Self-Service

CURIOSK MARKETING SOLUTIONS presented its assisted-selling wine kiosk with customizable messaging for gift-giving. Users scan a bottle from a retailer's stock, and the kiosk shows food-pairings, notes on the taste of the wine and cellaring information. That data is mixed with a customizable message for the recipient of the bottle and printed at the kiosk. The printout is folded and slipped over the bottle, and it features a receipt for the shopper that contains a marketing message for the retailer. The gift card is paid for at the kiosk, while the bottle of wine is taken care of at the retailer's counter.

IBM presented an application of its kiosk produced by one of its partners, EZface, called the Virtual Mirror. The kiosk snaps a photo of the user and presents it onscreen. The user then scans the barcodes of makeup and hair care products. Software applies the exact shades and textures of the products to the onscreen image, allowing users to preview their look before purchasing the products. Results can be printed and e-mailed.

NANONATION, working with partner Zebra, a printer manufacturer, showed its custom gift-card printing solution. The kiosk allows users to select a background design for a gift card, choose either a prepared message or create a customized one, select an amount, pay for the card and shortly the card is dispensed. The kiosk is expected to increase gift-card sales for deployers by increasing mindfulness of them as well as severing them from the checkout line for users who wish to purchase only a gift card.

NETKEY writes software that is optimized for developing, deploying and operating networks of self-service devices and digital signage, all on a common software platform that's easy to use. Applications include self-ordering, in-store e-commerce and loyalty applications. Media can be drag-and-dropped into specific environments and scheduled, optionally comingled with attract loops. The latest release is Netkey 6.7.

PARABIT SYSTEMS showed off its newest kiosk concept in the form of a sleekly designed machine that can be used in a variety of ways in the retail space. "Our specialty is really integration, where we develop different kinds of concepts and solutions for clients, everything from bill payment to wayfinding to online banking kiosks to technology kiosks," said Rob Leiponis, Parabit's CEO. "We're really a custom technology house."

Transactions

In the Green pavilion, attendees saw AFTERBOT's TransAccess solution. Its three components — EnterpriseConnect, SupplierConnect and CustomerConnect — each allow access to digital receipts and transaction details through a Web-based infrastructure. "Our mission, if you will, is to change the way retailers communicate information with both their suppliers and their customers," said vice president of marketing Jim Nadler. Anyone from a customer to a supplier to the retailer herself can access the system to obtain post-transaction data such as for tax-exemption status or signature retrieval. Using the system, retailers are also able to create alert rules to send notifications about minimum or maximum sales, for example.

MAIN STREET SOFTWORKS talked about its low-cost, robust credit-card processing software. The product is certified by American Express, MasterCard, VISA and the PCI Security Standards Council. It processes from the POS or e-commerce engine directly to a retailer's processor of choice.

METTEL, in addition to offering full telecom inventory management at the store location, provides single-point-of-contact bill management services. A retailer with multiple locations can spend thousands of dollars a month processing invoices related to them, with estimates putting the cost of each one processed from $9 to $15. With MetTel, the invoices are reduced to one.