StorepassIntroduction
Running a TCG store comes with some unique challenges compared to traditional retail. Inventory can range from a few thousand cards to hundreds of thousands, with new cards constantly being bought, sold, and repriced. At the same time, customers expect to be able to quickly find the exact cards they're looking for when they walk into a store.
A customer-facing kiosk can help bridge the gap between having a large digital inventory and making that inventory easy to shop in person. In this article, we'll look at why card stores use kiosks, how they work, and what to consider when setting one up.
Why card stores use inventory kiosks
A store can have tens of thousands of raw TCG singles and graded cards in its inventory, so where do they all go? While higher-end cards may have dedicated display cases to catch customers' attention, the majority of a store's inventory is often kept behind the counter, in storage bins, or elsewhere in the store.
A kiosk gives customers a way to sift through this mountain of inventory digitally and quickly find the cards they want to buy. Instead of being limited to what's visible in a display case, customers can browse inventory that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to display.
Another common problem a kiosk can help with is limited staff availability. When employees are already helping other customers, someone who just wants to know whether the store has a particular card may have to wait for assistance. The longer the wait, the more frustrating the shopping experience can become.
A kiosk allows customers to browse at their own pace without relying on a staff member's availability. They can search for specific cards, explore what's in stock, compare different options, and decide what they want before involving an employee.
What is a TCG store kiosk?
A TCG store kiosk is a touchscreen terminal used for self-service, similar to ones you'd find in a typical fast food restaurant or cafe. Its primary function is to let customers browse the products a store has available for purchase, while some kiosk software also allows customers to submit a buylist of cards they want to sell to the store.
Despite the name, a kiosk can be as simple as a tablet or touchscreen computer mounted somewhere customers can easily access it.
How a TCG inventory kiosk works
While some stores may allow customers to check out directly through a kiosk, most use it as an intermediary step between browsing and checkout.
The process typically starts with a customer searching the store's inventory for the cards they want. Depending on the software, they may be able to search by card name, set, game, condition, or other attributes and see the different copies the store currently has available.
As customers find cards they want, they add them to a cart just as they would when shopping online. Once they're finished, they submit the order through the kiosk. Staff are notified of the new order and can begin pulling the requested cards from wherever they're stored.
Once everything has been collected, the customer can be notified that their order is ready and head to the counter to complete their purchase.
What should you put in your display cases?
Display space in a TCG store is limited, so deciding which cards earn that space should be intentional. Rather than trying to display as much inventory as possible, display cases can be used to highlight the products that customers are most likely to notice and get excited about.
Higher-end singles, graded cards, popular chase cards, and products from current sets can all help attract attention when someone walks into the store. Instantly recognizable vintage cards can serve another purpose. Seeing iconic cards from earlier eras can help establish credibility with collectors and signal that the store is familiar with the history of the hobby, not just the products that are popular today. At the same time, having a strong selection from current sets shows customers that the store is actively keeping up with the games they play.
Meanwhile, there may be thousands of lower-priced singles that customers still want to buy but don't necessarily need to occupy valuable display space. Trying to make everything visible can make cases crowded and leave less room for the products you actually want to showcase.
A kiosk helps balance the two. Your display cases can focus on the inventory you want customers to see, while the kiosk makes the rest of your available inventory easy to discover and purchase. A customer who doesn't see what they're looking for in a display case can search the kiosk instead of assuming the store doesn't have it.
What makes a good TCG store kiosk?
In general, a good TCG store kiosk shouldn't feel like a chore to use. Ideally, finding a product should feel almost as easy as walking up to a shelf labeled for a specific product type and picking out what you want. The screen should be large enough to be easily legible, buttons should be big enough to comfortably tap, and it shouldn't require dozens of taps just to build a cart.
More specifically to TCG stores, which can deal with far more individual SKUs than the average retailer, a big part of creating a good shopping experience is giving customers powerful search and filtering options. A customer may be trying to find one particular card among thousands of products with similar names, different printings, conditions, sets, or other small differences.
Useful search and filtering features can include:
- Partial name searches
- Searching by card number or set name
- Filters for set, rarity, condition, and other card attributes
- Price ranges for customers shopping within a specific budget
- Sorting alphabetically, by price, or other useful criteria
- Clear card images for identifying different printings and variants
But search is only half of the experience. It works well when a customer already knows what they want, but not every customer walks into a card store looking for a specific card.
A good kiosk should also help customers discover products they might want to buy. Just like a physical store can use display cases, shelves, and endcaps to draw attention to certain products, a kiosk can create its own digital merchandising space.
Stores could use custom collections to highlight new arrivals, popular cards, staff picks, cards from a current set, or products related to an upcoming event. A store might also maintain a hotlist of products it wants to put in front of customers rather than waiting for someone to specifically search for them.
This turns the kiosk from a searchable inventory database into another way for the store to merchandise its products. A customer who walks up knowing exactly what they need can get to it quickly, while someone who doesn't can still browse around and discover something worth buying.
Of course, everything customers see on the kiosk also needs to accurately reflect what's actually available. This is especially important for TCG singles, where a store may only have one copy of a particular card, printing, or condition. Inventory should update immediately as cards are sold in store or online. Ideally, cards should also be reserved once an order is submitted so they can’t be purchased elsewhere while staff are pulling the order.
Finally, staff should have an easy way to put the device into a customer-facing kiosk mode that keeps administrative tools and the rest of the store's backend inaccessible. This is especially important when the same tablet or computer is also used by staff for other tasks.
Can a kiosk also be used for buylists?
A kiosk doesn't have to be limited to helping customers buy cards. Some buylist software also supports a customer-facing kiosk mode, allowing customers to search for the cards they want to sell, see what the store is offering, and build a submission without requiring a staff member to manually look up each card.
This can be especially useful for stores receiving enough buylist submissions that handling the process manually becomes difficult to keep up with. Customers can build their submission at their own pace, while staff can review the cards and finalize the offer afterward.
Having buying and selling available through the same kiosk can also create a natural opportunity for additional sales. After submitting cards for cash or, in many stores, a higher amount in store credit, a customer can immediately start browsing the store's inventory and thinking about what they might want to put that credit toward.
Setting up a kiosk in your TCG store
Setting up a kiosk doesn't necessarily require dedicated kiosk hardware. A tablet can be enough for a smaller store, while a larger touchscreen monitor or all-in-one computer can provide more screen space for browsing large inventories. Whichever option you choose, make sure the screen is large enough to comfortably view card images, prices, and filters without everything feeling cramped.
Placement matters as well. The kiosk should be somewhere customers naturally encounter it and can easily stop to browse without blocking the checkout counter or other high-traffic areas. Depending on the layout of your store, placing it near your singles display cases can make sense, since customers who don't find what they're looking for in the case can immediately search the rest of your inventory.
The device should also be securely mounted or placed on a sturdy stand, have a reliable internet connection, and stay connected to power throughout the day. For a tablet, there are plenty of countertop and floor stands available that can turn a regular device into something that feels more like a permanent part of the store.
For stores with a lot of foot traffic, you may eventually find that one kiosk isn't enough. Having multiple devices available can prevent customers from waiting behind someone building a large order, and because each device can access the same inventory, you don't necessarily need a different setup for each one.
Getting started with a TCG store kiosk
A kiosk can make a large TCG inventory much easier for customers to shop without requiring stores to put every card on display or have an employee available every time someone wants to look something up. The best setups make it easy for customers to find exactly what they're looking for while also helping them discover cards they might not have originally come in to buy.
If you're interested in setting up a kiosk in your own store, Storepass can give customers a self-service way to browse your inventory, place orders, and even build a buylist of cards they want to sell. You can learn more about how Storepass works for TCG stores here.