The Avanti Markets Answer to the Tablet Kiosk

Don't come to the Avanti Markets Booth at the NAMA OneShow looking for a Tablet Kiosk. Why?

With NAMA this week, I am sure the excitement of seeing new products is on all of the attendees’ minds. Having seen a few recent announcements from various micro market providers, I keep smiling knowing that we will undoubtedly be questioned as to where our tablet device is. Yes, I too was on that band wagon in the past — thinking that a tablet solution had to be the natural course of our next generation of products we offered.

But fortunately, having the ability to put on my “Operator Hat” allowed me to systematically think through those plans and I came back to my team with an absolute ‘No’!  Yes, we thoroughly expect the micro market operator to start to shift focus to smaller locations, as will I as an operator. One would naturally expect that would warrant a smaller, more limited featured kiosk or tablet in this case. But again, with my “Operator Hat” on, that is the absolute opposite way that I want to be going and will hopefully convince our Operator Network to follow.

Let’s look at the facts for a moment about the success of the standard micro market locations.

First, we know that security is imperative. Just ask an honor box operator (that is if you can find one still in business). They had a great idea or concept, but there was one major flaw that made the difference between success and failure with this business model: no video surveillance! So, the first thing a tablet solution needs is a way to still monitor the market. Someone considering the use of a tablet will still need to find some way to add an ancillary video surveillance system. What a pain!

Second, as we know from experience, about 30% or more of all transactions at the market are still initiated with cash. We learned that lesson from when we introduced our Executive model kiosk. It came standard with no bill acceptor on it as an effort to cut down its cost to operators. The first thing everyone wanted to do was to add the optional dollar bill acceptor to it. Not that they wanted to spend the extra money, but that is what their customers were asking for.

Third, we know that the ability to display product promotions and the additional security screen that is incorporated into our full featured kiosks are very important to our customers and to the success of our markets.

Lastly, customers want the large checkout screen for ease of use and it attracts more usage of the market. The tablet screen size is in total contrast to this.

So, to sum up, I realized that a full feature kiosk was even more important than ever to be located at what might be perceived as potentially marginal locations.  We needed to make sure that there was never a customer turned away because they didn’t have a payment type that could be handled at the kiosk, while making sure we could promote product sales, and maintain a high level of security. These are the factors that influenced my final decision and the direction I wanted to present to our Operator Network.

So, back to the drawing board, I put our focus back on figuring out how we could creatively make the cost of a full featured kiosk more affordable to the operator.  And we have done just that in lieu of producing a tablet that has limited functionality.

As an Operator, I hope I am competing against a competitor that has chosen to take the tablet route.  I am very sure I can tell you who the customer will choose to service their business!

Make sure to come visit us at Booth 423 at the NAMA OneShow to see Avanti Markets’ answer to the tablet and other new products and solutions. We look forward to seeing you there!

Want to join the Avanti Markets Operator Network? Learn more about how to become an operator here.