Increasing engagement with VMS kiosks

Rite Aid is experimenting with a new interactive kiosk to help consumers navigate a complex category to shop — vitamins and nutritional supplements. According to Rite Aid EVP of merchandising Tony Montini, the initial customer response has been extremely positive.

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“It’s been amazing,” Montini told Drug Store News. “Our customer engagement has been anywhere from two minutes, on the low side, to as high as 13 minutes.”



The kiosk is bringing a certain “wow” factor to the category, Montini said. It also provides plenty of actionable consumer information that can be gleaned from each interaction. In addition to engagement time, Rite Aid also is tracking search terms and the most frequently researched items.



In addition to the VMS kiosks, Rite Aid also is testing a new layout for the vitamin set in select stores. Set apart from the straight aisles throughout the rest of the store, the experimental vitamin department creates a self-contained vitamin section prominently placed in the front-end of the store. It utilizes curved fixtures to give Rite Aid shoppers a new traffic flow.



“VMS is a category that plays well across different segments of consumers,” Montini said. “It’s because they’re empowered users who have a regimen, and they’re always looking for what’s new and what’s next.”