Suhit Anantula's Library tagged kiosk →  View Popular

Once you consider the potential return and decide to ramp up a kiosk program, you need to look into the investment. The kiosks themselves — the hardware — are the least costly piece of the pie. According to Francie Mendelsohn, president of Rockville, MD-based Summit Research Associates, companies can expect to pay $5,000-$7,000 for each kiosk.

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Karla Guarino, vice president of sales at manufacturer Kiosk Information Systems (KIS), estimates the cost of a kiosk at $3,500-$7,500. The more expensive machines include add-ons such as bar-code scanners (for bringing up product information about an item in hand), credit-card readers, and customer service phone attachments. The kiosks are generally designed for a three- to five-year life span, so investment projections should include replacement of the hardware in the future.

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Then there's the matter of software. “It is the integration with existing management systems and connectivity that is costly,” Mendelsohn explains. Depending on the operational infrastructure and the point-of-sale systems you already have in place, the complexity of the kiosk software, and of course the number of kiosks, you can expect to pay another $10,000-$50,000 to get a kiosk program up and running.

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When calculating costs, Sapient's Sibulkin adds, you should be including connectivity, content creation, training, marketing, signage, promotions, and the cost of the selling space in the store.