Solutions by Industry

In-Store Sales Kiosks: A Case Study

One of the most sophisticated data-driven specialty retailers in the world, with a well-known and respected brand and 1,500 mall-based locations, wanted to understand the impact of rolling out an in-store sales kiosk.

  • The retailer had tested the kiosk concept in ~75 stores; however, they could not analytically identify any significant gain in sales in the stores.
  • Since executives could not identify a sales increase to justify the investment, they decided to abandon plans to further roll out the kiosks.
  • APT's Test and Learn™ Solution identified some stores that had experienced tremendous gains when the kiosk was introduced and other stores where the kiosks were destroying value.
  • The company rolled out the kiosks to the targeted store group recommended by the APT 's Test and Learn™ for Sites solution.
The Company:

North American retailer with 1,500 mall-based locations

The Challenge:

The client had developed a new offering, an in-store sales kiosk, which it tested in roughly 75 of its stores. Feedback from the field was mixed — some store managers reported very positive customer reaction, while others were unimpressed. The retailer could not analytically identify any significant gain in sales in the stores where it had tested this offering. Since executives could not identify a sales increase to justify the investment, they decided to abandon plans to further roll out the kiosks.

Before doing so, the company used the APT Suite to re-examine the program to make sure that abandoning it was the right decision.

The Solution:

The client began by using Test & Learn for Sites™ to isolate the impact of sales kiosks on total store sales and profit, excluding all of the other factors that influenced performance during the test period. APT's Test & Learn™ solution automatically:

  • Targeted a matched control group
  • Adjusted for seasonality patterns, weather-driven effects during the test period, and underlying long-term growth patterns by store
  • Identified outlier data points in order to develop a more accurate measurement of sales and profit lift

In doing so, the client was able to get an accurate, comprehensive measurement of the actual impact of this new concept on store performance. APT's analysis determined that the kiosks, on average, had a small positive impact on sales and profits, but that this lift was not sufficient to justify the cost of the kiosks overall.

Most importantly, APT's Test & Learn™ solution automatically went beyond this aggregate analysis to look at each specific store. This process identified some stores that had experienced tremendous gains when the concept was introduced and other stores where the kiosks were destroying value. APT's Test & Learn for Sites™ automatically identified and quantified the factors that predicted where this concept was likely to succeed. Using this data, the client was able to identify a group of several hundred targeted stores where introduction of the kiosks would generate positive returns.

The Results:

The company rolled out the concept to the targeted store group. Retrospective measurements of profit gain from this action was an increase in net profit of $1 million per year.