How to Use Touchscreen Technology to Improve Your Seasonal Sales

The holiday shopping season is the most exciting, the most demanding, and the most important time of year for any retailer. It’s a make-or-break period where a huge percentage of your annual revenue is generated in just a few short, chaotic weeks. In this high-stakes environment, the retailers who win are the ones who can create a smooth, efficient, and engaging in-store experience that keeps customers happy and the lines moving.

This is where touchscreen technology becomes a powerful tool in your holiday arsenal. From self-service kiosks that bust up long lines to interactive displays that help a customer find the perfect gift, this technology is more than just a convenience; it’s a strategic asset that can help you manage the holiday rush, empower your customers, and directly boost your sales.

If you’re looking for a competitive edge this holiday season, here’s how touchscreen solutions can help.

Line Busting with Self-Service Kiosks

The number one frustration for any holiday shopper is a long, slow-moving checkout line. A customer who has a cart full of items will often abandon the entire purchase if the line is too daunting. Self-service checkout kiosks are a powerful and effective solution to this problem.

By allowing customers to quickly scan and pay for their own items, you can dramatically increase your store's checkout capacity and reduce wait times. This leads to happier customers, fewer abandoned sales, and a more efficient use of your staff, who can be redeployed to help customers on the sales floor. 

Saving the Sale with an "Endless Aisle"

It's a classic holiday retail nightmare: a customer is in your store, ready to buy a specific item, but you are out of stock in their desired size or color. In most cases, that is a lost sale. But an in-store touchscreen kiosk can be a powerful tool to save it.

This is the concept of the "endless aisle." The kiosk can act as a direct portal to your company's entire inventory. A customer (or a sales associate) can use the kiosk to check the inventory at your other nearby store locations or order the out-of-stock item directly from your e-commerce website to have it shipped to their home.

This turns a potential disappointment into a positive customer experience and, most importantly, it saves the sale.

Guiding the Shopper with an Interactive Gift Finder

The holiday season can be an overwhelming time for shoppers. Many are looking for the perfect gift but have no idea where to start. An interactive "gift finder" on a touchscreen display can be a fun and incredibly helpful tool.

The display can feature a simple, visual quiz:

• "Who are you shopping for?" (e.g., Mom, Dad, a friend)

• "What is your budget?"

• "What are their interests?"

Based on their answers, the kiosk can then display a curated list of the top 5-10 recommended gift ideas, complete with their location in the store. This is a fantastic, value-added service that can help to guide an overwhelmed shopper and drive them towards a purchase.

A Faster, More Intuitive Point of Sale (POS)

The holiday rush means you are likely bringing on a lot of new, seasonal employees who need to be trained quickly. An intuitive touchscreen POS system is your best friend in this process.

A picture-based, easy-to-navigate POS is far faster for a new cashier to learn than an old, text-based system that requires memorizing a host of codes. This dramatically reduces your training time. It also reduces the number of errors and speeds up the transaction time for every single customer, which is absolutely critical for keeping your lines moving on a busy Saturday in December.

The holiday season is a massive opportunity and a massive operational challenge. By strategically investing in smart touchscreen technology, you can create a more efficient, more engaging, and less stressful shopping experience for your customers, which is the ultimate key to maximizing your sales during the most important time of the year.