< Previouswith the right skills and resources to complete the job at hand, reducing the number of repeat visits needed. This is particularly useful when an emergency job is required, and the application can ensure that changes are made to the schedule with the least disruption to customers with existing appointments.” Involving tech In the 21st century, one of the most vital pieces of equipment that companies can utilise to improve their services is modern technology. Rob Shaw, SVP Global Sales at Fluent Commerce, emphasises, “In today’s digital world, customers are connected to and empowered by technology, and expect the same type of experience from the places they shop. In order to go the extra mile for their customers, retailers need to have an accurate understanding of who the customer is, and how they want to shop, even when they touch the brand through multiple channels. Capturing this information and mapping the interactions back to a single customer profile can help retailers enrich the customer experience through each stage of the buyer journey. “Indeed, a large majority of customers will research and touch a brand via various channels before actually hitting the buy button. Retailers can optimise on these touches to learn everything about their customers - demographics, past purchase history and behaviour towards the brand. Learning from CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT Retailers need to have an accurate understanding of who the customer is, and how they want to shop, even when they touch the brand through multiple channels. 20KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE ROB SHAW SVP GLOBAL SALES FLUENT COMMERCE every exchange enables retailers to personalise each interaction, creating a unified experience complete with individualised recommendations. “A Distributed Order Management System (OMS) also bolsters the customer experience, as it helps keep all systems and platforms unified. For example, if a customer adds items to their CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT By filtering out fraudulent customers, organisations can focus time and resources on ensuring genuine customers are given the first-class treatment they deserve. 21 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE cart on the mobile app, and later finds some more items on the website, will both sets of items show up in their basket? Technology that allows for the recall of every session from your customer via any channel will help improve ease and experience. “Retailers also need to ensure their systems and platforms are agile yet scalable. The clue’s in the name – ‘Get to Know Your Customer Day’. This flexibility will help ensure they operate with the best-in-breed industry-standard technologies while achieving the connection and personalisation their customers want and will return for.” At Resistant.AI, Roger Walton, Chief Revenue Officer, details how they are using tech for a very different outcome, “We have a different take on getting to know your customer, by giving our clients the ability to quickly spot the difference between a real customer and a fraudster. In today’s digital world where financial crime is increasing exponentially and merging with cybercrime, our clients must be able to establish the trusted digital identity from the outset. “Why is this important? Recent data gathered from our customer base showed that 17% of bank statements used to support lending applications, Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and other identity-driven financial purposes worldwide are tampered with. Furthermore, 11% of UK payslips submitted as part of digital loan applications are altered or forged. “This can be remedied by utilising sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify anomalies early on in companies’ ‘get to know their customer’ processes. By filtering out the fraudulent, or fake customers, organisations can focus their time and resources on ensuring genuine customers are given the first-class treatment they deserve,” he concludes. ROGER WALTON CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER RESISTANT.AIRETAIL CHANNELS 22KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINEW ith hopes of recovery but also uncertainty on the horizon, now is the time for retail businesses, both in-store and online, to prepare and safeguard themselves for the opportunities and challenges ahead in order to operate effectively moving forwards. Part of this involves reflecting on how consumer habits have changed and navigating uncertainty around them, such as the supply chain crisis, to best prepare and take advantage of shopping peaks on the horizon, such as Valentine’s Day. Here are three insights that retailers should keep in mind for their online and in-store presence to maximise profitability, service consumers as well as conduct their day-to-day operations efficiently and safely. Focus on your supply chain The retail sector as a whole is in a positive state of recovery. The Office of National Statistics’ retail sales figures for October 2021 indicated that retail itself was almost 10% ahead of where it was before the pandemic, and even the most affected categories, such as fashion, have almost recovered to pre- pandemic levels. Despite this upward trend, there are still challenges for the sector to contend with, between large manufacturing delays and spikes in the demand for high street shopping and eCommerce. With shopping at some of its highest levels, there is even greater pressure on retailers to deliver. RETAIL CHANNELS THREE INSIGHTS TO HELP ANY RETAILER PREPARE FOR SHOPPING PEAKS Modern retailers are a case-in-point when it comes to blending the old with the new. To meet the needs and demands of modern consumers, a vast majority of retailers have taken on a sophisticated ‘clicks and bricks’ strategy that amalgamates two dominant retail channels: brick-and-mortar and online sales. 23 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE DAHWOOD AHMED REGIONAL DIRECTOR UK&I EXTREME NETWORKSRETAIL CHANNELS 24KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE To navigate this pressure, retailers must digitise their supply chains as well as their fulfilment and distribution centres. This is where IT network solutions can step in. For instance, many retailers are investing in high-capacity WiFi to achieve reliable and seamless connectivity throughout their warehouses to enable them to use technologies, such as IoT sensors and radio frequency identification (RFID) scanners. Thanks to these WiFi backed technologies, operators can pick, pack and ship goods as quickly as possible. At the same time, these technologies can - and should - be used to keep customers informed about the status of their orders. Managing these expectations in real-time is a key tenet of not only securing their supply chain but delivering an excellent customer experience. Look to extend and elevate your services Despite the emphasis on eCommerce for some consumers, shopping will still inevitably occur in brick-and-mortar stores. According to PWC’s annual consumer survey, nearly 40% of consumers make purchases inside a physical store at least once a week, compared to just 27% who do the same online. To help retain consumers’ confidence to visit shops, retailers need to show they are adapting. This can be achieved by providing elevated and extended services to manage and guarantee their customers’ safety, shopping convenience, and to deliver more value to their overall experience - whether it’s by offering in-store pickup, drive-through shopping, or pop-up sites. So what does this look like in practice? While extended services will help support sales and accommodate shoppers, retailers require adaptable, flexible, and secure technologies. For the likes of in-store pickups and pop-up sites, retailers could cover outdoor environments with secure connectivity for device support and payment processing. This is crucial as buy-online- pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) services and ship-from- store rely on IoT devices like scanners, tablets, and mobile phones to accurately keep track of inventory on the floor and in the backrooms of physical stores. Leading retailers and brands have even deployed robotic carts and robust warehouse management systems in their distribution and fulfilment centres to expedite the movement of goods. Again, these advancements in warehouse automation would not be possible without high-capacity WiFi to ensure reliable, seamless connectivity throughout the warehouse. Utilise data-driven insights and analytics Every type of business is facing a challenging new reality as they try to plan for the path ahead. In addition to keeping retailers secure, data analytics has the ability to reveal patterns in network behaviour, like traffic spikes, to identify what is and isn’t working in order to drive and inform better decision-making. Historically, data has been many retailers’ pain point due to the lack of time, staff and funds to track, analyse and utilise it. This is why they need to look at deploying the right network which can allow for a historical and real-time view of data and network behaviour. Only by using reliable data will retail businesses be able to better understand consumer needs and track customer patterns over time - whether it’s online or in- store. Furthermore, network data shouldn’t have Managing expectations in real-time is a key tenet of not only securing the supply chain but delivering an excellent customer experience.RETAIL CHANNELS 25 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE an expiration date and should offer unlimited insights so a retailer can compare trends in any timeframe. Data-driven insights and analytics are crucial for retailers to survive. If the past two years have shown us anything, it is that it’s never been more important to make use of data to drive customer loyalty, trust, engagement and safety. To continue to thrive beyond the pandemic and navigate shopping peaks at any time of year, retailers need to be agile and respond to changing consumer behaviour and uncertainty. But this task is not on individuals alone. Businesses should look to technology to provide a helping hand. It’s never been more important to make use of data to drive customer loyalty, trust, engagement and safety. HOW TO MAKE A LOW-COST MODULAR KIOSK USING REUSABLE COMPONENTS S elf-service ordering kiosks have been popular in recent years, particularly with large market players like McDonald’s, and during busy periods they appear to have increased capacity and efficiency for customer orders. However, they are not a cheap investment to make, and when something goes wrong with them the entire unit typically goes out of order, with components not being quick or easy to replace. The technical perspective So how could a smaller business get the benefits of a self-service ordering kiosk on a budget? We look at one way of putting together a low cost and modular kiosk using re-usable and easily replaceable components. But before we get to the actual solution, it is important to consider what a kiosk really is, at least from a technical perspective. To start with it is not much more than a computer or a big tablet, just like you have at home. The main difference is the shape and sometimes size of it. Similarly, you may have bought and connected a printer to your touchscreen laptop. Depending on how it is architected, the printer may well be connected in the same way the kiosk can be connected to a receipt printer and/or card terminal. Basic kiosk With that in mind, we could simply put together a combination of a tablet and stand/holder to form a basic kiosk, with orders printing directly in the kitchen on an intelligent POS printer, or a Windows tablet + thermal POS printer, or an existing Windows-based POS system but without interfering with the actual POS. This way we could quite easily have a basic kiosk for under £150-200, at least on the hardware side of things. LOW COST KIOSKS Denis Kondopoulos looks at the options of making a low-cost modular kiosk solution using off the shelf components. DENIS KONDOPOULOS HEAD OF DIGITAL NAXTECH 26KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINELOW COST KIOSKS 27 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINEWhat’s more, all the components are easily replaceable by simply visiting your local electrical retailer. Therefore should things go wrong, you could be back up and running within the hour. Advanced components Should we want to make our kiosk solution more advanced, we can add a thermal POS printer to it along with a card terminal. However because we are using generic tablets, we will need to use terminals that have an API (application programming interface) so that the tablet/software can communicate with the card terminal and tell it how much to charge, in addition to detecting the result of the transaction (ie success or failure). LOW COST KIOSKS 28KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE We need to use terminals that have an API to enable the tablet/software to communicate with the card terminal and tell it how much to charge. Market rates With the addition of these components, the cost certainly increases but can still remain in the £500 ballpark for a single kiosk/unit – still significantly less than UK market rates. What’s more, all the components can be found off the shelf and be replaced without too much fuss. This way, kiosks, even in their most basic form, can now benefit businesses of any size.MOVERS AND SHAKERS 29 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE MOVERS AND SHAKERS A round up of promotions, structural changes and new recruits across the kiosk and digital signage industry AV STUMPFL APPOINTS JAN WALTER, GLOBAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER ICON MULTIMEDIA APPOINTS ANDREA MEREGHETTI FOR DENEVA AV Stumpflhas announced the creation of a new management position inside their screens sales department. Jan Walter joined the team as Global Business Development Manager, Screens. Walter began his AV industry career as a Field Application Engineer and recently worked as a Senior Regional Sales Manager for an internationally known technology manufacturer. The focus of his new role will be expanding AV Stumpfl‘s international projection screens distribution network. Walter explains the reasons for taking on the new role: “Ever since I started working in the wider area of projection technology, AV Stumpfl screens have been a household name. I always associated their products with the highest quality possible and a great drive towards innovation. I see great potential for expanding the existing distribution network further and am looking forward to tackling this exciting challenge.” Stefanie Niederwimmer, AV Stumpfl‘s Executive Director, Screens, comments on the strategic importance of the newly created role: “In addition to technological innovation, we as a family company attach great importance to the interpersonal market presence. In order to strengthen this key factor even more, we decided to add the new Global Business Development Manager position to our screens department. Due to his great knowledge of both the products and the wider AV industry as such, Jan Walter is perfectly suited for taking on this new role and to support our screens team.” ICON Multimedia, a company specialising in the development of Digital Signage solutions thanks to its own DENEVA software, incorporates Andrea Mereghetti into its team, who will carry out his functions as a new Business Developer for Latin America. Mereghetti joins his new position with a professional background of more than 20 years in the AV industry, performing his duties in recent years as CEO of KOLO, where he consolidated his experience, turning the company into a reference in digital experiences in Mexico. Now, in his new role, he will bring his product knowledge, his team leadership and his ability to identify business opportunities. “Being part of a project with such a strong innovation and growth component is a really attractive challenge,” says Mereghetti. His point of operations will be located in Mexico, one of the most solid markets for the company, changing also the location of DENEVA’s physical offices in CDMX. However, its scope of action will go much further than these borders, reinforcing its position in other Latin American markets, within a global structure in which it already works in verticals as important as retail, corporate or transportation, among others. Mereghetti also says, “I take on this new responsibility with great enthusiasm and I hope to be able to contribute my experience at a key moment for ICON Multimedia in which it is consolidating its leadership in the field not only of products but also Digital Signage solutions.” IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR MOVER OR SHAKER PUBLISHED, EMAIL: EDITOR.KDSEUROPE.COMNext >