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Retailers benefit from having ownership of self-service solutions

September 27, 2011 by Soheil Samimi — President, iMOZI

As the market success of various self-service solutions continues to grow, more and more retailers are looking into the benefits from the direct ownership of kiosk networks.

Take the DVD kiosk industry, for example; redbox and NCR's Blockbuster Express kiosks have already proven its success so various retailers are rolling them out as part of their own store offerings. The general industry practice to date was for a retailer to simply host the kiosks, with an operating partner owning and managing the activities in exchange for a small revenue share arrangement. As business continues to grow, with more sales and profitability coming from such self-service solutions, retailers can now more confidently evaluate the option of buying such technologies and benefit from a larger share of the activities.

Getting ahead of the trend

Many independent, regional or smaller chains are actually at the forefront of this trend. Perhaps partially driven by a more difficult access and availability of kiosks from companies like redbox, these retailers are considering other successful options which for various reasons can arguably benefit them more. Aside from generating better revenues (vs. hosting), the retailers can, for example, brand their DVD kiosks with their own logos, market promotions and advertisements through the digital signage or even sell movies and games that are currently taking shelf-space and represent a theft concern.

Partnering with a manufacturer

In order to achieve such a successful roll-out, the retailer can partner with a self-service solution provider and acquire the technology platform required. Aside from selling the equipment, the technology vendor might also offer a suite of services to help the retailer better manage their network. At iMOZI, for example, we tailor various options for the retail partner that includes most of the technology and operations assistance they require to be as hands-off as possible. This allows the store to benefit from ownership, while easily managing the network without needing to worry about the technology expertise needed to run self-service solutions.

With many known concepts like the DVD Kiosk, established ROI is certainly there to justify such an approach by the retailer – especially if additional creative programs are implemented to leverage their entertainment offering with various cross promotions that generate additional sales of related goods within the store. The self-service industry continues to be a growing part of the future of the retail environment, and thus we can expect new opportunities to continue to emerge for retailers.

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