Mobile Payment Kiosks Could Be Big for Restaurants, Hotels

We’ve already seen some of the impact that a kiosk can have. Restaurants are increasingly using these as a way to speed up the counter processes, letting customers input their orders as they arrive instead of forcing them through the cashier funnel. That’s not the end of kiosks’ capabilities, though, and restaurants—and hotels, too—are starting to consider the kiosk and its mobile payments capabilities as a way to improve revenue.

The kiosk market itself, reports note, is set to hit $1 billion by just 2021, so looking to get a piece of that action is probably a smart idea for any business. Customers are clearly getting used to the notion of a serve-yourself kiosk, and so its use is expanding.

Naturally, food self-service kiosks are doing impressive things, comprising now 16 percent of the total market in participation. McDonald’s is already using the kiosk as a means to achieve its ultimate goal of zero wait time, and it’s far from the only one. We’ve seen Panera Bread and Subway step into this field too, and with all these firms involved, the rest of the market can’t be far behind.

It’s not just food doing well; beverage kiosks are doing well, and making up slightly less of the market at 14 percent. Ticketing kiosks are 10 percent of the field, and kiosks for patients in healthcare represents nine percent. The hotel check-out kiosk is 11 percent of the market, and goes a long way toward automating some of the more tedious tasks, speeding up the process by not requiring a human’s attention for something simple.

The market for self-service kiosks in restaurants is likely to only gain ground; if McDonald’s is in on it, Burger King and Wendy’s can scarcely ignore it for fear of losing ground to the clown. With Subway and Panera stepping in, other quick-service restaurants will have to step in as well or, again, risk losing market share. But beyond food, we’re seeing more and more of how kiosks can improve the customer experience, and ultimately drive sales.

With mobile payments incorporated into these kiosks, there’s almost no need for a human cashier at all, except for those who still want to use cash. Given some kiosks, even that may not be a protection much longer.