On a very simple level, guided selling kiosks are computerised kiosk machines that are located in retail stores to help customers to make decisions about purchases. Guided Selling ensures an optimal buying experience by intelligently walking customers through a set of key questions to determine the customer's specific requirements, preferences and priorities. Guided selling helps consumers get to a targeted list of products based on their answers to a series of questions shown on the kiosk screen.

Guided selling kiosks are great for customers because they provide access to information, available products and product information as a catalogue would, but they can also include previous customer's product reviews to help the customer make an informed decision.

You might assume that most customers nowadays research their purchases online before visiting the retail store. However; according to the Government statistical bulletin 'Internet Access - Households and Individuals, 2011', only 77 per cent of households had Internet access, rendering 33 percent of households unable to research purchases at home. Therefore; guided selling kiosks provide a premium buying experience for all customers but provides a key tool for those households without internet access.

Guided selling kiosks are also fantastic for companies. A guided selling kiosk can easily be branded and integrated into the store environment and the information that the kiosk holds can be updates quickly and easily from a central computer, all perfect for the company from the running side of things.

However, guided selling kiosks also increase sales whilst lowering costs. Guided selling kiosks provide a dynamic user experience that consumers control the length and depth of their online consultation, ensuring that each prospect receives product recommendations with the appropriate level of preparedness; guiding customers to a buying decision thereby increasing the likelihood of conversion. Furthermore, because the your retail outlet provided the guided selling kiosk and information, the customer feels confident with the transparency of the information provided, which in turn makes them more likely to make that purchase from your store.

Whilst at the other end, the kiosk cuts down on costs because specialist sales people are no longer need. Since customers, dealers and sales representatives have direct access to all relevant knowledge and information, the dependence on others, such as technical specialists, is reduced.

Additionally, guided selling kiosks can strike whilst the iron is hot, taking chip and pin payments for goods and up selling extended warrantees on electrical goods whilst the customer is still accessing the kiosk. This pay at the kiosk service can be packaged as a 'quick service' or a 'discreet service', but essentially makes the conversion before the customer leaves the kiosk.

Many of the large branded companies are seeing the benefits of guided selling kiosks and more and more are being installed into retail stores. Not only are guided selling kiosks increasing sales in store, but they are also retaining customer information for future marketing campaigns and providing customer satisfaction feedback and product reviews to assist and build the confidence of future customers.