Given consumers' ready adoption of self-service technologies at supermarkets and airline check-ins, a recent report sponsored by IBM Corp. suggests that merchants are considering implementing the same type of convenient technology throughout the retail sector. According to IBM marketing manager Ken Duffy, customer-facing kiosks can drive increased revenues and sales by 30 percent or more. Duffy notes that deli kiosks have increased consumer spend by 35 percent in some instances, and a guided sales kiosk targeted a specific product drove a 20 percent increase in sales. The primary challenge for retailers is in integrating self-service technology with existing point-of-sale and back-office systems. To truly take advantage of self-service technologies, retailers need to manage self-checkout applications at the enterprise and store levels.
