In life and in the world of computer kiosks, bigger isn’t always better. But in retail and the food and beverage industry, there are many large touch screen advantages to consider. Why is bigger generally considered better in advertising?
“Marketing has changed a lot over the years, but we’re not talking about a whole new world here. At its heart, it’s still about putting text and images in front of consumers,” reminds our new Advanced Kiosks technical sales guru Matt Rivero. “We’re still taking 100-year-old lessons from the print world: half page is better than a quarter page; full color more eye-catching than black and white.”
In this post, we’re going to use real-world examples of four ways major corporations are making large touchscreen kiosks work for them.
#1) Bigger Makes A Visual Splash: Two for the Price of One
Matt has identified an important trend in our industry: “The line between digital signage advertising and interactive kiosks is starting to blur. Digital sign makers are adding more interactive capabilities to their products just as kiosks are getting bigger and more attention-grabbing.”
If you need kiosks to improve your self-service game, it makes sense to have them do double duty as digital signs. The biggest of the box stores has been experimenting with this for a couple years now. Walmart’s ginormous Pickup Towers stand 16 feet tall and 8 feet wide to greet you at the door. Now, instead of having to walk all the way back to customer service and stand in line, people walk a few feet to the kiosks and scan the bar code from their online purchase receipt to make a door pop open on the monster machine that delivers their item via conveyor belt. An errand that used to take 15 minutes on a good day can now be accomplished in under a minute, according to Business Insider reporting that Walmart plans to add Pickup Towers to 700 stores by the end of 2018.
Once that’s done, Walmart says 40% of the U.S. population will have access to their Pickup Towers. That underscores another eye-opening observation from Matt: “TV advertising is in decline because, not only can viewers choose from hundreds of channels now, there are fewer people sitting at home watching TV. Walmart puts a huge touch screen at the front of their store and boom! It has as much visibility as a local TV ad, and it’s cheaper.”
#2) Bigger Looks Tastier
As we recently reported, food and beverage self-service kiosks now make up about one third of the overall market, and people tend to spend more when ordering from them. McDonald’s knows the business case for labor-cost-saving interactive kiosks. It plans to have them in most of its 14,000 U.S. restaurants by 2020.
That big, juicy burger looks so much more enticing on a 55” touch screen than a smartphone. To borrow a phrase from Wendy’s iconic ad campaign, no one has to wonder, “Where’s the beef?”
When delving into their online ordering options, “Restaurants quickly realize cell phones just don’t have the same mouth-watering impact as large, high-resolution kiosk displays,” Matt says.
#3) Bigger Makes Purchasing Decisions Easier
In addition to their giant pickup towers, Walmart just announced more in-store kiosks to act as portals to Walmart.com. Their reasoning? A nearly universal online shopper’s experience: starting to shop on your phone or tablet only to move over to your laptop to better investigate product specs and options. Walmart electronics department associates were actually seeing shoppers move from their cell phones to in-store display laptops to make online purchases.
Giving your customers easy access to product information is simply a no-brainer in today’s increasingly complex consumer landscape. Deciding between 427 different makes and models is difficult enough without having to squint to see the fine print. Large touchscreen displays make it easier for people to make the decision to buy from you.
#4) Bigger is More Accessible
There are 650 million people living with disabilities worldwide. The International Symbol of Access has trained our culture to equate “disabled” with wheelchair-bound. Of course Advanced Kiosks has developed ADA-friendly hardware and software to make it easy for people with mobility issues to use our kiosks. But disabilities come in all different shapes and forms.
Have you ever assessed how seniors navigate your brand and technology? Similarly, there are a host of neurological disorders that make the “double-click” we take for granted nearly impossible. Operating a computer directly via touch is much easier than having to manipulate a mouse or keyboard. Large touch screens offer bigger text and buttons to help all kinds of people interact with and get what they need from technology.
Shop Our Large Screen Product Line
Here at Advanced Kiosks, we follow our own advice. We’ve made it easy for you to compare and contrast our large touch screen models by grouping them all together on one page. Do you need 32”, 46”, 55”? Horizontal or vertical display? We’ve got you covered. Come meet our gentle giants. The Tower, Pedestal, Monolith, I Kiosk and Merchant Max are all ready to work for you!
Written by Amy Robison, contributing author
