More than 80 percent of wine and spirits shoppers would use a self-service kiosk for product information such as tasting notes, food pairing recommendations and cellaring guidelines, according to early results in an ongoing survey being conducted by RetailCustomerExperience.com.

The survey found that while 74 percent of shoppers have asked for assistance and more than 70 percent rated the service as “excellent” or “good,” the majority of shoppers (82 percent) would “absolutely” or “probably” use such a kiosk for information and that more than 53 percent would “absolutely” or “probably” purchase a greeting card from the kiosk with this information on it.

“With over 98 percent of respondents saying they have shopped for wine or spirits to give as a gift or take to a dinner party, a self-serve kiosk supports the need for accessible product information with the convenience of providing a greeting card all at once,” said David Weinberg, president of the survey’s sponsor, Curiosk Marketing Solutions Inc.

Respondents made their wine or spirits purchases in various store types, with the top four being privately owned or government-run specialty wine and spirits shops (95 percent), grocery stores (68 percent), winery tasting rooms (65 percent) and mass merchants (44 percent).

First introduced in the UK in the 1990s, the number of self-service checkouts is set to double in the next few years. This is because they offer supermarkets quick cost savings and in today’s economic and highly competitive retail climate, that has got to be a good thing.

Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket, leads the do-it-yourself checkout league, with self-service counters in 256 stores. The tills process 25% of all transactions in those shops. Sainsbury’s has them in 220 stores and is planning more.

BBC looked into the self-service checkout phenomenon, discussing why consumers are still not embracing them fully, and here’s a selection of user replies…

“I love self-service checkouts. I can buy those embarrassing items without anyone knowing, don’t have to stand behind women or old people fiddling with their purses, and can avoid all form of contact or ‘conversation’ with the checkout assistants.”
Mike Wright, Birmingham

“I always use self-service checkouts, I rarely have issues and it is much much quicker. I don’t understand why people moan about these tills, after all its a choice, if you don’t like them, don’t use them.”
Sarah, Essex

“I use these machines for small amounts of shopping. What annoys me most about them is the way that they make you jump through their hoops – the back and forth with the bag and the ‘unexpected item’. I needed a staff member to swipe their card to allow me to use my own bag last time. Lastly, I’ll add they’re too talkative for me. Sometimes I just wish they’d shut-up and let me get on with it – ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’, ‘do you have a loyalty card’, ‘please take your shopping’, etc. You can turn it off – but it never seems worth it for 5 items or less.”
Barnabyp, London

“I always opt for the self-checkout if I’m not doing a large shop! It really annoys my wife who would rather wait for longer and be served by a person but I quite like it. Not having to answer questions like: ‘what’s the weather like?’ (look for yourself the window is just there!)or ‘are you having a nice day?’ (I’m in the supermarket on a Saturday – NO!) I know that the machine telling you off is patronising but I’d rather a machine patronise me than a real person. ”
Alex Cootes, London

A recent survey of 3,000 mobile phone users across France, Germany and the UK indicated promising feedback for the touchscreen industry.

Of those polled, 38% said a finger-based touchscreen would be their first port of call when hunting for a new mobile, while a further 16% would opt for a stylus-based touchscreen, suggesting a continuing market shift toward touch-centric devices.

This certainly strikes a chord with smart phone vendors whose designs are focused on delivering enhanced consumer experience and could nudge those lagging behind to reconsider their strategies.

Looking at the results by handset brand, HTC and Apple stood out as having a much higher proportion of users wanting to stick with the same type of UI, while Sony Ericsson had the lowest proportion among the major handset vendors, at just 29%.