Tell Me More: Photo kiosks

The demand for photo kiosks in the marketplace is growing among merchants and consumers. These machines allow you to connect a digital camera or insert CDs, flash memory cards, and floppy disks into the kiosk to print inexpensive professional-quality photos on high-grade paper in just minutes. Businesses like supermarkets and pharmacies can place these desktop-sized kiosks at the point of sale for customers to use while paying for merchandise or filling a prescription.

The customer activates the photo kiosk by touching the screen. He then connects the digital camera or inserts media into the kiosk and selects the pictures for printing. When finished, the customer simply swipes a credit card through the kiosk and the machine will do the rest.

Photo kiosks allow customers to adjust photo quality, crop shots, remove blemishes, and rotate the image. Plus, by viewing and selecting only the photos they want printed, these machines eliminate the old “drop box” method of leaving film rolls with the photo shop and then paying to have all of film’s contents developed.

While photo kiosks primarily print photos, they also generate reports that allow you to track orders, usage statistics, sales figures, and maintenance requests. They can even work with remote devices to manage sales and marketing programs on the kiosk screens when they aren’t in use.

One thing to keep in mind is the upkeep of your photo kiosks. You can either contract with a monitoring company who keeps track of the kiosk’s performance and when consumables such as ink and paper need to be refilled. You could also train your employees to maintain the machine and restock supplies as needed.