kiosk services
Evoke Creative is bringing technology to stores through
interactive kiosks and customer service systems.
By Dean Ward, Technical Director and Co-Owner, Evoke Creative.
The British high street is by no means
a spent force, despite a host of high
profile casualties including once famous
names such as Woolworths and BHS.
Evoke Creative, an innovative provider
of interactive digital technology, is at
the vanguard of the retail sector’s battle
to create stunning spaces that keep
customers coming in-store. With the
UK leading the way in terms of in-store
technology, the North West-based
business is perfectly placed to benefit
from the boom of ‘omni-channel’.
The In-Store Experience
The secret of designing a good kiosk
is about thinking how you can make
a business better. Evoke’s kiosks in
London's Oxford Street Debenhams are
designed with the area’s dense tourist
traffic in mind, enabling customers to
order what they have seen in store to
be sent to their home country, minus
VAT. Its kiosks in McDonald’s enable
diners to place an order as they enter
the restaurant and have it waiting for
them once they reach the beginning
of the queue, rather than queueing
and then potentially waiting for it to be
cooked. Technology designed for JD
Sports includes interactive mirrors, which
showcase products it thinks you may
be interested in, and enable shoppers
to complete purchases there and then.
Travelodge’s kiosks automate the simple
check-in/check-out process, freeing up
reception staff to handle more complex
customer queries.
Evoke, which has just won a
national award for manufacturing
and technology, presented during the
International Festival for Business in
Liverpool, believes its solutions are a
crucial tool for the high street in the
fight back against online shopping. “The
technology we’re creating makes the
in-store retail experience even better in
a way that can’t yet be rivalled by online
shopping,” says Ward, who is convinced
the deployment of interactive digital
technology, be it in kiosk, a tablet or even
in video wall form, will proliferate further
in retail, leisure and other key markets in
the next few years.
The Rise of E-Commerce
There is considerable polarisation in the
market place – some retailers such as
JD Sports Fashion see major investment
into in-store technology to create a
compelling user experience as core to
their DNA – while others simply favour
the low price-led approach of ‘pile it high
and sell it cheap.' Ward believes this gap
will inevitably close: “The obvious reason
is the continuing rise of e-commerce. As
online sales grow and as competition
intensifies – the Amazon Fresh grocery
service will launch in the UK this year bricks and mortar retailers will simply
have to raise their game.” He argues too
that in-store technology can make retail
units more efficient in terms of staff
costs and stock holding. For McDonald’s
it’s also about improving customer
service.
Another factor fuelling growth is that
brand owners are increasingly imposing
certain standards on retailers and
expecting them to deploy technology
in-store to showcase their products in
an effective, engaging and attractive
way. “For me, a kiosk is essential to
the customer experience, adds Ward.
“Deployed effectively it can free up staff
from doing the ‘grunt work’ so they can
engage with customers by providing
product advice with the potential to upsell. I’m sure there will always be human
interaction in retail with technology as an
enabler. It’s important though that staff
see it as a tool and not a threat.”
To this end, Evoke is being used by
a number of our customers to help with
the changing management process. It
has run training sessions with their staff
to help them see that the technology is
not a threat to their jobs, but is integral to
the success of the store. Ward continues:
“Some people may say that digital
technology means fewer jobs in-store,
and while there may be an element of
truth in some circumstances, if investing
in interactive technology means that
the retailer survives and thrives into the
future, it’s surely worth it?”.
For Evoke, Kiosks are so much
more than a metal box. The company’s
recent success has been built around
providing a bespoke, design-led, value
added solution. “We don’t see ourselves
simply as manufacturers – we are more
creators of an interactive experience,
using anything from iPads to a 20 square
metre immersive environment. We tend
to work now at a thought leadership
level, understanding what clients want
and according to a specific store size or
a geographical location. We start each
project with a blank sheet of paper,
and create a solution from there,” says
Ward, who believes this is the way the
kiosk industry will evolve. “For some it
will be a challenge, but we have seen it
as an enormous opportunity to broaden
our offer. For Evoke, our recent growth
and success has been driven by close
partnership with some world-class
brands and retailers, so the future for us
is more innovation. We see our designled approach and speed to market as
differentiators and as we grow we will
maintain this.”
www.evoke-creative.com
KIOSK solutions 39