Home Smart 100 2012 Carcloud Kiosk (SMART 100)

Carcloud Kiosk (SMART 100)

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Carcloud Kiosk (VIC)

This innovation initially came to life when…

After several years designing and consulting on retail technology, touch interfaces and cloud platforms, Chris was frustrated that many great innovations are inaccessible to businesses due to high cost of entry. Companies that want to engage their customers through technology typically have to “go it alone” and create custom solutions, with significant risk and often unproven ROI models.

Chris had some experience in the online travel space and partnered with Dan, a car rental technologist with extensive supplier-side experience. Together they created Carcloud, providing touch-screen kiosks and mobile solutions to the car rental industry for a low ongoing cost.

WHAT & HOW

The purpose of this innovation is to…

  • Increase revenue of car rental suppliers by increasing the number of bookings taken.
  • Increase brand exposure of car rental suppliers at partner locations (hotels and airlines).
  • Improve guest experience and revenue of hotels and airlines.

It does this by…

Providing a lightweight touch-screen car rental kiosk for mass deployment. Car rental suppliers place the kiosks at partner hotels and in airport lounges to capture additional bookings and promote their brand. Car rental customers receive SMS and email confirmation of their booking containing maps and pickup information. The kiosk has no moving parts or consumables and stands there earning money 24/7.

PURPOSE & BENEFITS

This innovation improves on what came before because…

The only kiosks previously available are all-in-one solutions that replace the tasks performed at a car rental desk: scanning driving licences, capturing signatures, printing paperwork. These are large, expensive and require regular servicing to replace consumables. They focus on improving efficiency at premium locations while we focus on increasing bookings at partner locations. The two products thus exist in harmony.

Its various benefits to the customer/end-user include…

Using otherwise dead-time. A customer waiting at the airport gate for one hour is bored. They can use the kiosk (and kill time) to book a car at their destination for collection when they land.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

In the past, this problem was solved by…

Booking direct with the car rental company, using an online aggregator or speaking to the concierge at hotels. While these are all valid channels that will not be entirely replaced, the kiosk provides a trusted point for self-service car rental that is easy to use and adds value through onscreen maps and SMS confirmation with easy online links.

Its predecessors/competitors include…

Simple digital signage products for brand promotion (with no interaction/booking capture). Leaflets with promotional material at partner locations. Expensive booking kiosks at premium locations.

TARGET MARKET

It is made for…

Car rental suppliers, car rental aggregators and travel partners (hotels, airlines, travel agents). In the US alone there are around 5,000 car rental suppliers with combined annual revenue of $40 billion.

The kiosk is provided for low ongoing cost and generates measurable revenue. Each device should therefore be cashflow-positive for our clients from month 1. This means that each client can sustain a large network of kiosks at their partner locations, increasing the size of each contract to us.

DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

It is available for sale through…

Currently directly through Carcloud, though we are looking to establish local partner networks for distribution.

Our marketing strategy is to…

Initially go to our clients rather than have them come to us. It’s a new type of product so there’s a certain amount of education but we find that people “get it” quite quickly. In the public forum we want to capitalize on the innovative qualities of the product to gain exposure, while ensuring people know it’s easy to get started.

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