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PRESS RELEASE
A Q & A with Ms. Sunita Gupta, Executive Vice President of LakeWest Group L.L.C. about the premiere of the 8th Annual POS Benchmarking Survey!
02 February, 2007 - LakeWest Group is the premier management consulting firm dedicated to the retail and consumer products industries (including the entire B2B and B2C supply chain). With deep retail business knowledge and cross-functional capabilities, the firm delivers superior design and implementation of strategy, technology, and process solutions.
The unique combination of industry focus, knowledge-based approach, and rapid, end-to-end solution deployment helps clients achieve their business potential. We recently had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Sunita Gupta, Executive Vice President about the recent premiere of the 8th Annual POS Benchmarking Survey.
EKN: "Hello Ms. Gupta: Thank you for taking time to speak with us about the latest information on what Retailers are looking for in the next 1 - 2 years. Please tell our visitors a little about the Survey?" Sunita: "Thanks, I am very excited about sharing some of the results from our survey. We conduct our POS Benchmarking Survey of some of the top retailers each year to track point-of-sale benchmarking; identify the priorities around the customer touchpoints - including the point-of-sale (or POS), websites, and kiosks; and understand future initiatives that retailers are contemplating."
"By surveying some of the top retailers and offering our own insight based on many client engagements, we can create a tool for many retailers to utilize as they work to identify and prioritize their own initiatives for the next few years."
EKN: "What are some of the applications that the retailers in the survey are offering their customers through kiosks?" Sunita: "The retailers we surveyed are really trying to tailor their kiosks to the desired customer experience. In the last few years we have seen retailers offering more than just gift registries. Product information has become an important application in areas where product research has become so prevalent, such as consumer electronics."
"Most customers want to do research on products and pricing and even read professional or other consumer reviews. By offering this type of information at a kiosk in the store the retailer can try to keep the customer in the store to purchase. Of course, another major application we see is offering the ability for special orders through a kiosk, either by accessing the web or another application."
"Additionally, there has been a lot of excitement in the grocery sector about utilizing kiosks to tie into loyalty programs and offer tailored promotions to customers when they walk in the door. This really ties in with retailers focus on personalizing promotions to their most valued customers."
EKN: "Are more Retailers bundling applications such as Loyalty Programs and Gift Registrations into Self Service Kiosks and do they see human/machine interfacing as a good use of technology?" Sunita: "Kiosks offer much more than just loyalty program promotions and gift registries. One of the areas we are seeing retailers explore is leveraging the functionality of kiosks by offering customer-facing applications plus also applying employee-facing applications to be used at other times, such as HR functions, training, or even recruiting. One of the keys to the success of self service kiosks is ensuring that employees are trained to understand that kiosks do not take the place of human interaction; they are a tool to support sales personnel and the shopping experience."
EKN: "How do retailers view using technology as a competitive tool and do they feel that kiosk use can enhance the shopping experience?" Sunita: "In today's dynamic and technology-driven world, technology is necessary to compete. Customers have access to more information, products, and stores than ever before and they have high expectations - technology is needed to meet and exceed those expectations."
EKN: "Do respondents to the Benchmarking Survey view kiosks as an expenditure or a way to support ROI?" Sunita: "The benefits of implementing kiosks are usually seen through sales improvement expense reduction. So, for example, the ability to place a special order from a kiosks prevents the loss of a sale for the retailer when a product is out-of-stock. On the expense side, managing the employee hiring process benefits management by eliminating additional paperwork, and for current employees the ability to view benefits package information or update benefits information can be greatly decreased by having a kiosk integrated to a home office HR application."
EKN: "Do you find that retailers are including kiosks as an additional channel within their multi-channel strategy?" Sunita: "Kiosks are very definitely part of retailers' multi-channel strategies. Of the respondents in our survey, one-quarter currently utilize kiosks and 40% plan to increase their kiosk offerings within the next 2 years. Half of consumers today utilize the Internet when they shop, whether to research products and pricing, or to actually purchase. Because kiosks offer a similar experience to online shopping, this also plays a part in consumers becoming comfortable with kiosks and should be important to retailers as they examine their multi-channel strategy."
EKN: "Is there an expected increased focus on kiosks for this year, 2007?" Sunita: "There really has been a gradual increase over the last year or two and going into the next few years. More retailers are beginning to understand the value that kiosks offer to their customers and are getting better at dealing with the potential challenges."
"After the initial surge of retail kiosk deployment a number of years ago, retailers had a lot of issues to face - such as bad kiosk placement, poor design, unclear customer purpose, maintenance problems - so some retailers backed off the kiosk bandwagon. Now, retailers are approaching kiosk deployment with more knowledge, more awareness of potential issues, and more support to ensure that they serve a clear purpose, are easily located and utilized by customers, and that ongoing maintenance of the software and hardware is critical."
