Beyond ensuring you maximize these vital assets, here are 5 additional tactics to bolster your kiosk business:

1. Rally the support of your in-location staff.

The cashiers, managers and merchandisers are in the retail location at all times. They can be your biggest ally in directing customers to your kiosk. So make sure they’re motivated to promote movie rentals, and that they are able to answer basic questions. Incent them with contests and draws for free movies, cool movie posters and discounts, and recognize and reward your strongest supporters.

Marketing materials like bag stuffers, promotional coupons and “Ask Me About A Movie Rental” buttons on staff lapels can go a long way. Demo days with a free first rental will ensure the staff is familiar with the kiosk.

2. Market your location’s products on your LCD advertising screen.

Use your attractive screen to promote daily or weekly specials within your location. It’s a great way to upsell and cross-sell. Candy, snacks, fresh coffee, the deli counter…

3. Seek out local businesses that target the same audiences as you do.

Make your neighbouring merchants aware of the proximity, convenience and many features of your kiosk. Turn them into regular customers and incent them to promote your business to their customers.

You can create mutually beneficial marketing opportunities in several ways:

• promoting product tie-ins like a half-price movie rental with every pizza
• selling bulk half-price rental specials (via a promo code) to merchants to award their clients
• offering special local-rate advertising on your LCD screen
• offering special local-rate advertising through coupons inside your disc cases
• offering special local-rate advertising on your website

4. Take advantage of your disc cases.

Whether it’s a special offer from a local merchant or a random surprise to show your own customer appreciation, people enjoy finding something extra in the DVD case. A special promo code to get your next movie rental free can feel like winning a lottery ticket!

5. Get outside!

There’s something special about helium balloons… they never fail to attract attention. So get creative to find ways to extend your marketing beyond the parking lot and beyond the curb. Weighted flags and banners, sandwich boards, mobile neon-letter sign boards and good old balloons all help to let the world know you’re there.

Beyond your location, bag stuffers and flyers can be posted on local bulletin boards (in grocery stores, community centres, local gyms) or distributed door-to-door within your neighbourhood. Notices of new releases can be strong traffic-drivers.

And of course, there’s your web site and the opportunity to communicate with your customers digitally, with a blog or newsletters.

Reason #1 Visibility and 24/7 Revenue Generation
An outdoor DVD Kiosk will generate revenue 7 days per week, 24 hours per day. So when your retail location closes at the end of the day, the DVD kiosk continues to generate revenue. Even for the retailer who is open 24 hours a day, an outdoor presence draws the attention of a much higher volume of clients. Indoors, a unit’s exposure is limited to the location’s customers. And, once customers enter a store, there is a great deal of competition for their attention. Unless a customer is entering the store with the express goal of renting or returning a DVD, a back-of-the-store Kiosk can risk going unnoticed. The outdoor unit with its digital screen cannot be easily ignored by visiting customers, pedestrians and even drive-by traffic.

Reason #2 Convenience
Customers today demand convenience. For DVD rentals, that means customers want the convenience of quick access to pick up and drop off a movie. Whether it’s the busy parent ferrying their children around in the car, or stopping by on the way home from work… there’s no need to park the car when the Outdoor DVD Kiosk is only a few feet away. When customers pre-order their movies via online reservation, the time in front of the kiosk is typically less than 10 seconds. Can’t beat that for convenience. A good experience for the customer will cause them to return, over and over again, generating more income. Speaking of convenience, unlike other DVD Kiosks, the Signifi kiosk does not even require a customer to touch the screen and wait for a prompt in order to return movies. One simply inserts the movie into the slot and the return is done in seconds. Our design team took customer behavior into consideration when engineering the kiosk – retail customers were used to just dropping movies off in a drop box… hassle-free.

Reason #3 More Revenues
Ever wonder why most RedBox kiosks are outdoors? Outdoor units are said to generate from 30 to 100 percent higher revenues. Signifi’s digital signage is an additional bonus and will be even more valuable when placed outdoors as the advertising opportunities are greater. Some retail operators may be concerned that having an outdoor kiosk could deter clients from walking into their location; the opposite in fact holds true. When a kiosk is conveniently situated close to the entrance of the store, clients wanting to purchase will of course come in. But market studies show that, as an added bonus, 20 percent of movie returns will result in an unplanned purchase. That’s in addition to the movie and game renters who may not have otherwise come into the store. A very convenient revenue-generating solution for the location owner.

Reason #4 Designed for the North American Outdoors
Outdoor kiosks from Signifi are designed to withstand the harsh elements in North America. Like a letter carrier, they operate in all weather conditions; they feature full heating and cooling systems. Signifi’s models are housed in a secure and robust enclosure, expertly designed to withstand dust, heat, cold, snow and condensation. The Signifi outdoor kiosks are rugged and secure, and for those interested, it would take thousands of pounds of pressure per inch to even try and budge the second screen! You can have peace of mind knowing your unit will remain secure and functional, rain or shine. I’ll be writing again about the value of Outdoor DVD Kiosks in the near future.

About the author
Shamira Jaffer is President of Signifi Solutions Inc. based in Toronto, Canada. She has been a leader and innovator in the kiosk industry for over a decade. Shamira is also a founding partner and current board member of Esprida, a kiosk monitoring and management company. Signifi Solutions designs, sells and supports DVD Kiosks: models including the outdoor Rainman (800-disc unit), Aero (500-disc unit) and the Lightning (1500-disc unit). www.Signifi.com/Kiosks

As the owner of a DVD rental or sales kiosk, you want to ensure the optimal location to generate the most revenue; that is, the maximum number of rentals per day. You want to place the self-serve kiosk in a highly visible, well lit location that receives lots of foot traffic every day, all day. Your kiosk will not attract business if it’s tucked away in a location that may be handy for you, but not readily convenient for your customers.

If you’ve been following our recent blog posts, you’ll know our resounding recommendation is OUTDOORS. You just can’t beat a weather-protected outdoor kiosk for the visibility, customer convenience and drive-by exposure. But if an exterior placement is just not feasible, here are some really good locations to consider within your store:

• The 4th wall
• Next to the ATM machine
• Near the lottery station
• By the courier or postal services kiosk
• In a direct sightline from the main entrance, either when entering or exiting
• Adjacent to wherever customers regularly and patiently wait in line, for example, a sandwich deli counter
• In a lobby or vestibule
• And importantly, Outdoors, near the main entrance

Because a credit card is required to check out, be sure your kiosks are situated where customers feel comfortable and secure using one. Kiosks with two or more self-serve touchscreens will require access from more than one side. Customers using the DVD kiosk should also not be in a spot where they risk blocking traffic. Most people won’t spend long browsing movie selections if they believe they are in the way of other customers. You want the customers’ experience to be comfortable and not rush them into making or limiting their selections.

If a high-traffic area is just not available, certain lower-traffic but high-value areas can also result in your DVD Kiosk generating significant revenues. Think of a location where patrons wait patiently in line, for example, at the deli or sandwich counter. They can watch movie trailers and other promotional advertising (like a deli product upsell!) while waiting their turn. A shopper waiting for her prescription… a diner waiting for his take-out order… customers in line at the checkout lane… Not only will the kiosk and its digital LCD screen plant the idea of renting a movie or game, it will reduce customers’ perceived wait time.

Most important, however, is the ability to actually reserve that found DVD, Blu-Ray, 3D, or game from your DVD Kiosk. This provides your customers peace of mind: knowing the title they really hope to rent is being held for them. Watch the 2-minute video below to see how easy and intuitive the reservation app is for your customers.

Now that your customers have the ability to browse your entire selection remotely, at their leisure, while not having to worry about the impatient customer standing behind them, the door is open to moving beyond stocking only new releases and category movies. Your inventory can expand into different tiers of highly rented movies: Awards movies, classics and foreign films to name a few. These “next tier” titles are typically far less expensive than new releases, providing the potential for greater income per title.

As your customers can now unearth hidden gems in your inventory, you’re realizing increased rentals. With Netflix, the title your customers discover is available to them in 1-5 days. With your DVD Kiosk, these same titles are available for immediate pickup. Your customers will value this new found convenience and selection.

Everything is doubled with two standalone units. The second unit needs to be managed, stocked and monitored separately. It requires duplicate infrastructure provisioning (hydro, connectivity, credit card processing, etc.) and duplicate ad management. More importantly, as the units are separate and don’t know the other exists, if your customers cannot find a desired title in the first kiosk, they need to also register then interface with the second kiosk to search for the same desired title. If there are three kiosks, the process must be repeated a third time. And so on. What’s more, if your customers want to reserve a movie online, they could potentially need to sign on and check the inventory of each same-location DVD kiosk. Both of these scenarios are frustrating to your customers, resulting in a poor shopping experience.

The challenge with a Redbox kiosk is the small size of their units. They each hold approximately 200 titles, typically just enough for new releases. This is why in successful locations, more than one unit is being deployed.

Signifi long ago identified and addressed these issues and designed their kiosks to simplify the Customer User experience. For starters, Signifi kiosks have a 500-disc and 800-disc capacity. Right out of the gate, your customers have more selection than two Redbox kiosks, without doubling up on the management. When you have more selection, you greatly increase the chances of your customer conveniently finding that title they want to rent and you increase the chances of their repeat business.

Secondly, Signifi kiosks are modular: they can be configured (as shown) to create a cohesive 1,600-DVD (or more!) capacity kiosk. You can have 2 or 4 screens and up to 4 digital displays for advertising (another revenue stream). The DVD Kiosks is for all intents and purposes one unit: Each screen provides your customer with access to a common inventory. There’s no need for your customers to walk between the screens, or wait in line for the next screen. The same ultra-convenience applies to online title reservations; customers see the entire multi-unit inventory at one sitting.

Adding a second kiosk to a proven location provides a much higher initial return and quicker payback than installing a single kiosk. However, two standalone units are not better than one larger DVD kiosk.

Redbox image from insideredbox.com

p.s. The cost of procuring a double unit from Signifi is far less than two standalone kiosks.

Customers tell us you need at least 500 DVDs to operate a profitable DVD Kiosk. Additionally, our experience shows up to a 3 fold increase in rentals-per-title in an 800 disc capacity DVD Kiosk over a 250 disc capacity. The most basic reason is increased selection for your customers. Here are some of the reasons why a larger selection matters:

• Saving the sale. When customers cannot find the movie they came to rent, having more choices will save the sale. They’ll rent something else if given enough selection.
• Improved selection. Most customers don’t know what movie they want to rent. Consider all the titles a typical DVD brick-and-mortar store has on the shelves and still how hard it is for your customers to find something to rent. This problem is exacerated with a small 250-unit DVD kiosk. In this scenario, you’ll find customers walking away disappointed, walking away with a bad experience, reducing their chances of returning to your DVD kiosk, and importantly, telling their neighbors about their bad experience.

• 500+ allows you to inventory multiple copies of the new or popular hits, which are more frequently rented. You avoid disappointing your customers looking to rent that hot new title.
• Additional capacity lets you carry both DVD and Blu-ray, providing even more selection to your customers and generating even more repeat business.
• Having sufficient capacity provides you the room to add hundreds of category movies, the “best of the best” movies, such as Forrest Gump or Cars, which you will procure for less than $4 in most cases – imagine the margin!
• A smaller capacity DVD kiosk forces you to remove titles, to make way for even newer titles, before you have received the full monetary benefit of the rental. This also results in you spending more time managing the unit.
• Don’t forget games! Our larger unit will allow you to carry both movies and game rentals, resulting in a greater opportunity for multiple rentals per customer visit, on average, 3-nights per rental.

When you have more selection, you greatly increase the chances of your customer finding a title they want to rent. You increase their repeat business and they’ll tell their neighbors about their great experience. All this results in higher profit.

At the end of the day, a 250-disc DVD Kiosk will just alienate your customers and will reflect poorly on your retail outlet. And they’ll tell their friends.

Requiring a customer to interact with the DVD kiosk simply to return a movie is a design error; one that can lead to bad impressions and unfortunate events like the one captured on video below. This needless interaction wastes your customer’s valuable time, and can affect every customer, whether impacting them directly, or the person in line ahead of them. The result? Poor opinions and lost sales.

Left = redbox kiosk Right=Signifi kiosk

Every juncture where a customer needs to interact (or in the case above, is forced to interact) with the kiosk represents a point of potential failure. In this case, the touchscreen likely was functioning, but relied on the customer to understand the screen’s decreased sensitivity when human fingers are covered by gloves (think Winter). Signifi has painstakingly removed many such touch points in our DVD kiosk design, eliminating points of failure and minimizing the opportunity to create a negative shopping experience. As shown in the Signifi video on the left, no kiosk interaction is required to return a movie. Importantly, with a Signifi kiosk, even while a customer is selecting DVD(s) or games for rental, another customer can still return a movie, further creating a positive shopping experience.

Notice that while the customer was simply trying to return a movie, 2 more clients lined up behind him, now creating a negative experience for 3 customers (that we’re aware of).

While the customer could have returned the disk faster by interacting with the touchscreen without wearing gloves, the time required in front of a Redbox Kiosk is still 4 times longer than in front of a Signifi DVD Kiosk. With the latter kiosk, no touchscreen interaction is required to return media: the disk case is simply inserted into the media slot. As easy as mailing a letter.

Signifi’s vast experience in kiosk design is why our kiosks are considered the next generation of DVD Kiosks. Contact us for more information.

The original video of the redbox on the LEFT can be found here, while the Signifi video on the RIGHT can be found here.

DVD inventory management is an important component to ensure the utmost profitability of your Kiosks. You can expect to spend a few hours per month managing the inventory.

Start small regardless of the quantity of movies your unit can hold
When you start with your DVD kiosk, we at Signifi recommend an inventory of 150-200 DVDs regardless of the size of your unit. Your initial inventory should have all the new releases from the past 6 months with a good selection of category movies (top sellers, award winners, etc.)

Adding movies
Expect to add roughly 30 titles per month in the first year. During this time, you’ll learn your customers’ renting habits. Generally, action and comedy genres tend to generate lots of business, and depending on your demographics, family movies can do very well.

Signifi introduces our operators to very reputable wholesale entertainment distributors. Not only will they sell you movies at great prices, they’ll support your choices with recommendations and relevant data. There are also many resources on the web that will provide you with advance notice of pending new releases and how well they are expected to do.

We did not realize how much business we were losing because of lack of variety. We took advantage of the increased space by adding older titles and other lower-cost movies that now generate great income for us.

 

Size does matter
Your goal is to maximize the revenue of your inventory, that is, each title is rented a maximum number of times. With a limited capacity kiosk – around 300 disks – you will quickly discover that you have to remove movies after only a few weeks because you need to constantly make room for newer titles. This lowers the number of rentals per disk, and in many cases, forces you to prematurely remove the title before receiving its full rental revenue potential. Such an undesireable juggling act can be virtually eliminated by using an appropriately sized DVD kiosk. One client who had a profitable 240-disk capacity kiosk experienced a whopping 100% increase in revenues simply by replacing the unit with a larger capacity kiosk. “We did not realize how much business we were losing because of lack of variety. We took advantage of the increased space by adding older titles and other lower-cost movies that now generate great income for us.” The other big advantage of having extra room in your kiosk is that you can stock up on products such as DVD and matching Blu-rays or 3D, TV series, and other low-cost great deals as they present themselves.

Optimal Cruising Altitude
Capacity is critical to your success. Don’t underestimate the value of having the room to hold the right volume and variety of content to hit the optimal cruising altitude. Deploy a right-sized capacity DVD Kiosk and then use it well to get the most out of every movie you invest in.