K is for Kiosk

Lower staff costs, better order accuracy, and more volume are big reasons kiosks are taking on more importance in the point-of-sale product mix.

Kiosks set up as point-of-sale devices are not new—the first one reportedly was at a grocery store in New York in 1992—but their saturation has amped up recently, especially as consumers get used to tapping touchscreens, and labor costs and a challenging labor pool cause many merchants to seek alternatives.

Couple that with consumers being able to place orders quickly—plus the upsell opportunity—and it’s not difficult to see why kiosks have become more important.

Kiosks can be especially well suited to quick-serve restaurants, fast casual dining, venues with high volumes, such as stadiums and cafeterias, and in locations with urban, younger demographics, though their utility is not exclusive to these factors.

Add in that restaurants, which are prime kiosk prospects, are rethinking their technology and whittling down the number of vendors they deal with, and kiosks can become more critical.

A study from Qu Inc. earlier this year found that 64% of restaurants said technology and systems consolidation was a priority. “Digitalization with restaurants increased fast during the pandemic, but now is starting to level off, which is prompting restaurants to take the time to understand what a unified tech stack means to their business,” Qu chief executive Amir Hudda told Digital Transactions in May.

Now, kiosks have bloomed, thanks to the proliferation of more sophisticated payments technology reaching deeper into the small and medium-size segments, along with growing merchant expectations to do more than just payment acceptance with technology.

“Some major chains, such as Panera, have been offering this [technology] for nearly a decade, but hardware and software limitations have held back the [small and medium size business] market. However, this gap has been bridged, and we will continue to see more and more merchants move towards kiosks. It is already a big [piece] of the mix if you wish to compete in this space,” says Dustin Magaziner, partner and chief executive at PayBright, a Raleigh, N.C.-based payments provider.

Others agree. “We’ve offered kiosks to our customers for more than a decade, and what was once seen as an expensive solution to a rare problem seems to be more of a necessity in the past few years,” says Alex Schwartz, marketing director at Signature Systems Inc., a Warminster, Pa.-based payments company that sells under the PDQ POS banner.

“Kiosks are vital to plenty of restaurants, especially those in more rural areas or newer locations that have difficulty finding and training staff,” adds Schwartz. “Even for businesses that have established clientele in urban areas, kiosks are unmatched in their ability to take care of the weekday lunch rush and deliver orders with better accuracy. We get plenty of questions about kiosks on a daily basis because their use case has become so evident as more larger franchises and chains have integrated them into their POS mix.”

Customers in Control

Kiosks are part of the recently launched Genius POS platform from Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc. “Right now, our customers view the technology as additive to what they are already doing,” says Chris Siefken, Global president of restaurant POS. “It’s another way for customers to place orders and for them to improve operational efficiency. Many consumers, especially younger ones, actually prefer the kiosk experience.”

Global launched the platform in May, aiming it at restaurants, and has since launched it in the United Kingdom and released a retail version of it in June. It expects to add an enterprise version, too.

There can be clear benefits for merchants using kiosks, Magaziner says. “It enables faster service, lower labor costs, and when done right, a better customer experience,” he says.

“Going up to a counter and ordering with a cashier can be frustrating when you want modifiers, are unsure of what comes on a specific item, [and so on],” he adds. “Giving a customer the ability to control the experience fully can, in many cases, lead to a better experience, while significantly saving the merchant on labor costs. It can be a true win-win.”

Schwartz agrees, arguing kiosks can help maintain the flow of customers in a physical location, maintain order accuracy, and afford merchants more flexibility in scheduling and labor costs.

At Fiserv Inc., which added a kiosk to its Clover POS platform in 2024, when pitching merchants about its kiosk, the focus is on the simplicity of implementation and the return on investment, on the fact that the device has a low-touch setup process, and that it syncs directly with existing Clover devices, says Will Karczewski, Fiserv head of Clover.

“Clover Kiosk has the potential to save more money than it costs to implement through significant labor savings, higher customer throughput, and increased average ticket size,” Karczewski says. Operational efficiency, profit growth, and an enhanced customer experience are three key parts of the pitch for the Clover kiosk, he adds.

Fiserv views the Clover kiosk as a natural extension of its product set, he says, that evolves the traditional POS system into a comprehensive business-management tool.

“It’s designed to seamlessly integrate with a merchant’s existing devices, creating a unified ecosystem that streamlines the entire ordering process from the customer to the kitchen. By blending digital and physical experiences, the kiosk becomes a key component in an adaptable platform that grows with our merchants,” Karczewski says.

Acquirers, too, benefit, and not just from transaction processing. “Kiosks have helped us keep plenty of customers happy, undoubtedly helping us retain their business, particularly because our kiosks are so easy to integrate into all of our existing configurations,” Schwartz says. “For many owners and operators, cost is less of a concern than the headache of managing a kiosk or multiple kiosk units, but when customers learn that our units are set up in their store by a professional and then require negligible management beyond cleaning, they tend to be relieved.”

Paying for Itself

Kiosk pricing ranges from a one-time cost to a subscription model and many other variations. Generally, the average cost of a retail POS kiosk can range widely, from $700 to more than $5,000 for custom models. Schwartz says PDQ POS kiosks are generally sold with a one-time upfront fee and a small monthly fee for service and support.

“The merchants that we serve really want kiosks, and this technology is a regular part of the conversation we have with customers and prospects. A kiosk can easily pay for itself in under a year,” Global’s Siefken says.

Magaziner says merchants should be wary of kiosks being sold as margin grabs, in other words, pitches such as extolling the labor savings costs but charging higher prices for the device.

He also says they are best used as a layer in the merchant’s payment-acceptance matrix. “They need to layer kiosks on top of their current ordering experience, not replace it. The reality is, some customers will want to talk to someone—they don’t know how to use a kiosk, [or] they have [food] allergies and want to ask questions, etc.,” he says.

At Fiserv, Karczewski says what works with merchants is to choose the option that best fits their budget and cash flow.

And the perceived disruption of a kiosk isn’t much of an issue, Magaziner says. When implemented in the right way, that’s a positive, he says.

Siefken also dispels the disruption notion. “The restaurants and venues that we talk to are not concerned about the disruption kiosks might cause,” he says. “They are focused on the very real operational improvements and improved average ticket size they can achieve with kiosks. That is because they view them as another way to serve customers—not necessarily a wholesale move to a different operating model.”

‘Bells And Whistles’

Easing labor issues, providing another way to serve customers, and potentially increasing order throughput are some ways kiosks can benefit merchants. And, for acquirers and payment providers, the benefits are just as evident, observers say. The devices can help merchants achieve their goals in maintaining and potentially growing sales, which benefits payments companies, they argue.

“Kiosks are ideal for any environment where a merchant wants to offer a self-order and checkout experience, including quick-service restaurants,” Siefken says. “Another strong use case is stadiums and other food-service management environments like corporate cafeterias and university food halls, where we are seeing strong interest from customers and prospects.”

Kiosk adoption may signal a systemic shift for many merchants, especially smaller ones that typically could not afford them in the past or didn’t have a clear use for them. That’s changing.

Karczewski says customer expectations are changing and merchants need a complete and adaptable POS system “that can grow with its merchants’ businesses and enable them to blend digital and physical experiences to meet evolving customer expectations.”

“Historically, restaurant POS was all about cost, reliability, and ease of ordering, all of which should be a basis of a solution these days,” Magaziner says. “Now, there are more and more bells and whistles to allow a business owner to actually improve their operation. If a restaurant hasn’t explored POS in the last few years, they are likely leaving profits on the table.”