Female-owned Tech Companies Merge, Offer Enhanced Contactless Retail Solutions

When PopCom, which builds smart vending machine and kiosk solutions, acquired game-based survey company Wyzerr in July, it was an opportunity for the two female-owned tech companies to reinvigorate the scope of the automated retail industry.

This comes at a time when the need for contactless retail is of utmost importance. In an extremely short time, COVID-19 has redefined customers’ buying behavior and perceptions of in-store experiences on a global scale.

According to Wyzerr’s founder, Natasia Malaihollo, “The world is different. Retail is different. To stay ahead, we have to think outside of the box and align ourselves with people that are building companies that will not only survive a pandemic but adapt to the new normal.”

Out-of-the-box Thinking for Kiosks

PopCom has brought advanced technologies such as facial detection, machine learning, and blockchain to vending machines and kiosks. Founded in 2017 by Dawn Dickson, it raised $2.3 million in capital entirely through crowdfunding.

“Our goal overall is to reduce the friction and transactions in automation in the retail setting and then allow retailers to collect data from and about their customers,” says Dickson. To do this, the company’s products are able to bring advancements to several aspects of contactless retail solutions.

To start, the kiosk is able to disperse a variety of retail products, such as jewelry, shoes, and even government-regulated products like alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and cannabis. The machine then uses facial and emotion recognition technology and demographic analysis to uncover insights into consumer behavior. This technology allows the kiosks to continually learn and improve the customer experience by evaluating the customer’s interaction with the product and its interface.

In addition, the kiosk can identify customers for loyalty programs, boosting engagement. The touchless kiosk uses blockchain to process transactions and keep the customer’s data encrypted and safe.

However, PopCom is also focused on customers that do not buy their products. With the technology in these machines, the kiosks are able to provide insights on non-customers by “scan[ning] anonymous demographic data to analyze shoppers who engage and buy compared with those who walk past.”

In doing so, the kiosk provides real-time insights for its clients, allowing them to analyze what does and does not work. This is exceptionally useful for e-commerce clients, whose businesses are dependent on a non-physical presence. By placing these machines in a mall or airport, these clients are able to mimic having an in-person, interactive experience with the added bonus of advanced, real-time data analysis.

A Game-changer for Surveys

Like PopCom, Wyzerr has been able to provide a futuristic twist on a dated concept: the survey. For many customers and employees, surveys can feel like a chore. Either they do not take the survey at all or they begin to take it and stop partway through. To combat this, Wyzerr has gamified and streamlined the survey.

Rather than making the customer select multiple-choice answers or rate their satisfaction on a 0–10 point scale, Wyzerr’s surveys are interactive. Customers can drag and drop their selections into colorful buckets for answers and provide customized responses to questions. In addition, the surveys are extremely short: the company states that it “can ask 25 questions in under 60 seconds.”

Due to this new take on the survey, Wyzerr has 2,200 customers including Facebook, Google, Kroger, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and PayPal, and its surveys are being distributed in more than 53 countries. With such a diverse and notable client portfolio and international presence, Malaihollo’s company was an ideal candidate for integration with PopCom’s kiosks.

Preparing for a Contactless Future

While vending machines selling headphones and iPads were commonplace in airports prior to the pandemic, their range of products and services will seem quaint in comparison to what customers will be demanding in the future. Rather than go into a physical store and interact with products strangers might have touched, customers will be able to walk up, be identified automatically, and purchase their products without ever touching the screen of PopCom’s kiosks.

For the client, the worries that come from a lack of physical presence and customer interaction are offset with the kiosk’s ability to observe and track customer and non-customer behavior. The addition of Wyzerr’s surveys will boost that engagement further, providing a high volume of feedback to refine and customize the user experience.

PopCom’s acquisition of Wyzerr also illuminates an interesting aspect of the future of retail. While automation provides valuable data for clients and worry-free, convenient experiences for the customer, retailers still need engagement and feedback from their customers. While the future might be contact-free, interactivity and communication are here to stay.