Using Carts and Kiosks to Launch Your Product

If you walk through any mall today you will see dozens of carts and kiosks, and you will see that number skyrocket as the Christmas season approaches. The market looks big and it is: $12.7 billion in the US alone. It is clearly a market that shouldn’t be ignored.

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While many of the Kiosks are from franchisers with a start-up package (approximately 300 top Cart & Kiosk packages are listed in the winter 2009 issue of Specialty Retail Report (www.specialtyretail.com), there is still a huge market for inventors to sell to independent carts and kiosk owners plus inventors can also sell to the franchisers of those kiosks systems. Both outlets offer strong sales opportunities to inventors with a unique product. The kiosks are particularly strong outlets for inventors that have products that work best with a demonstration and might otherwise be hard to sell in a store.

Probably the strongest reason to check out the Cart and Kiosk market is that those retailers operate from locations that give your product optimal exposure to the market.

Products that Work Best

Price point should be between $10.00 and $150.00. Kiosks just can’t carry enough low price inventory to generate the sales they need. They need a high priced product, $10.00 is the minimum and the $150.00 price is about as high as you can go for an impulse purchase.
You need the suggested retail price to be two to three times the price you sell to Cart and Kiosk retailers. These retailers have to sell high priced products at a high margin to cover their costs and make money.
The product is great for an impulse purchase. Carts and Kiosks make their living from a product that people see in a mall and can’t resist from buying right then.
The product demonstrates well. Cart and Kiosk retailers want to make a sale right then and now, and a great demonstration helps them do that.
A minimum of 10 to 25% of consumers are potential customers. Cart and Kiosk vendors make money by attracting people who are passing by in the mall. Your product has to potentially appeal to a significant number of those people for the Cart and Kiosk retailers to make money.

How To Get Started

Start subscribing to the Specialty Retail Report (www.specialtyretail.com). It is a leading magazine for Cart and Kiosk retailers. It is also the best source for a list of franchises that sell Cart and Kiosk start-up packages.
Investigate the SPREE Show (www.SPREEshow.com) web site and consider visiting or exhibiting at the show. You can sell to both independent Cart and Kiosk vendors and franchisers at the show.
Visit many malls to get ideas for packaging and demonstrations. You also want to spend a long time studying very strong point of purchase displays. You need to offer many tools to Cart and Kiosk vendors so they can attract people to their location. Your packaging should be able to pull people over to the cart or kiosk from 20 to 50 feet away. You need strong visual graphics. Look for products that have strong visual appeal and use them as a starting guideline for your product.
Use the Specialty Retail Report Directory of Top Cart and Kiosk Start-up vendors to find franchisers who would be good sales candidates to approach.
Either start in the industry by attending the SPREE show, or start by contacting the franchises that you feel would do best selling your product. Be sure to have a strong package, point of purchase display, instructions for demonstrating your product and a price list before approaching companies for a sale.

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