How Self-Service Drop-Off Kiosks with Lockers Streamline the Customer Experience

Drop-off kiosks with lockers are a fast, safe, and convenient way to enable drop-offs of retail returns and rentals. With retailers ramping up efforts to compete with ecommerce and taking measures for safe indoor shopping, drop-off lockers with self-service kiosks are one way to reduce lines and improve the customer experience. 

Drop-off kiosks bring in new customers

Increasingly, retailers are collaborating with one another to provide experiences in each others brick-and-mortar locations. We’ve seen this with Amazon returns at Kohl’s and Rent the Runway drop-off returns kiosks at WeWork. 

Providing drop-off and returns kiosks can help businesses bring in new traffic that can do in-store shopping after they drop off their returns, packages, or rentals. This is especially true for stores that don’t have a large footprint but still want to provide fast and seamless customer service for their shoppers. 

Pair self-service returns kiosks with drop-off lockers for an automated drop-off experience 

Depending on the type of drop-offs you’re looking to enable, your customers may need simply a drop-off bin, or a dedicated locker to leave their item in. Drop off and returns lockers add a layer of security and remove the need for a staff member to place items in their correct locations. By adding self-service kiosks to your drop-off lockers, you can create an automated and personalized experience. 

Drop-off kiosks like Aila’s Interactive Kiosk integrate with smart locker systems in the back-end. Once integrated, customers simply approach the kiosk and scan their item (for drop-offs) or a code on their smartphone or receipt (for pickups). Their assigned locker will pop open, letting them drop off or pick up the item in a fully automated process.

Modern kiosks like the Interactive Kiosk can also provide product recommendations, offers, status updates, and more depending on the types of experiences you’re creating in the store, leading to more sales and an even better customer experience.

Drop-off and pick-up lockers are gaining popularity among retailers that are doubling down on ecommerce efforts. Top U.S. retailers like Lowe’s and Stop & Shop have already deployed pickup lockers to reduce lines at the customer service desk. 

Shoppers are ready for self-service returns lockers and drop-off kiosks

Self-service drop off lockers are nothing new to the average customer who has already used them at amusement parks to store their items, at their apartment complex to pick up their packages, or at their library to pick up reserved books. 

Furthermore, the pandemic hasn’t changed attitudes around self-service solutions in the store. A  recent study by McKinsey & Company found that 60% of U.S. consumers who said they are using Buy Online, Pickup In Store (BOPIS) plan to continue using the service even after the pandemic is over.

Aila’s Interactive Kiosk provides a convenient and user-friendly platform for drop-off lockers

Built around Apple’s iPad, Aila’s Interactive Kiosk provides fast and easy scanning of 45+ barcode types and can read US. driver’s licenses and other IDs. This makes the Interactive Kiosk idea for touchless or low-touch pickup and drop-off scenarios. 

Compatible with any iOS app, the Interactive Kiosk can be integrated with and mounted on top of or on the side of self-service locker systems for drop-offs and returns. 

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