Kiosks press retailers' buttons

Twizel-born entrepreneur Matt Cudworth has helped Singapore's largest telco make its stores more futuristic and now hopes to persuade Kiwi retailers to invest in his high-tech gadgetry.

Mr Cudworth moved to Australia nine years ago, and in 2003 co-founded Yeahpoint, a company that designs touch-screen interactive kiosks.

The kiosks can be used by shoppers and sales assistants to call up information and, in some cases, buy products.

Last year, it won a deal to install kiosks at SingTel's 11 own-branded stores in Singapore.

The first "concept store" has 25 kiosks, including one built into its shop window that lets passers-by buy and download digital music and films.

"The particular store at Jurong Point is in a massive retail environment and there are people around 24 hours a day," says Mr Cudworth. "The store is open from 11am to 9pm, but there is an awful lot of usage out of hours."

He believes the economic downturn should encourage New Zealand retailers to invest in innovation.

"When we were in the boom times, a lot of innovation got put on the backburner, because you didn't need to innovate to be successful. Now people are looking at how they can not just survive but thrive in this environment."

Pharmacies are among Yeahpoint's target customers in New Zealand. "If you let people do things in their own time, they quite often buy more."

Retailers Association chief executive John Albertson says the question with all new technologies is whether they go beyond being a gimmick.

"As we come out of this recessionary period, I think we are going to have a different consumer, so we are going to have to see some innovation from those retailers that want to get ahead.

"Certainly, the industry can't afford to keep discounting the way it has."

- © Fairfax NZ News