How to start a kiosk business?

Brief: When you want to start your own business, you may feel completely in the dark if you do not have any experience, Today I m going to give you a full guide on starting a mall kiosk business, whether you want to start a food concession kiosk, retail kiosk or service salon kiosk. This article covers all the essential information to help you decide a business type, typical target market, potential customer portrait, revenue profit growth, startup costs, legal business license and more!

Unique Kiosk is a professional mall kiosk designer &manufacturers, We have already helped thousands of business vendors open a successful business. Follow the procedure step-by-step, you can start your own kiosk business in an efficient & cost-effective way.

Business overview

What is a kiosk business?

Kiosk business is not like an office trade business. Its’ smaller, easy start business with retail merchandising stands or semi-closed kiosk stall with open-front selling counters. Typically, you can easily find them in a shopping mall, trades centers, airports, train stations or another public business plaza. Usually, a kiosk will be located in the middle of the mall corridor(center of the two-sides in-line shops), the shopping center will give a lease license according to the mall traffic & floor plan.

There are many businesses you can start within a mall kiosk, fast food is a popular business idea. Within a fast-food kiosk, you can service, cupcake, waffle, crepe, chocolates, bakery or snacks food. Of course, a beverage concession is also a good option. Coffee, bubble tea, ice cream are all hot & popular. Besides this, starting a retail kiosk with mobile phone paraphernalia, phone accessories, sunglasses, toys, the revenue is decent & remarkable. What’s more, eyebrow threading, nail manicure, teeth whitening, massage are newly if you want to know more mall kiosk business ideas, please visit: Top 100 small business trend for mall kiosk ideas

Who are the target potential market & customer?

You can start a kiosk business on many occasions. Depends on what products you are selling and what service you offering. There are also indoor kiosk & outdoor kiosk difference. Keep in mind that the business must establish in an area that can attract the customer who needs those products. For example, you can start a popcorn kiosk in movie theaters, or start an ice cream kiosk in the street. So, the potential market is fully open to customer needs. When you deeply learned customer need, you are in charge of the market.

As for your potential customer, you need proper market research. Different service, different products own different customer volume. Berber kiosk in the mall would mainly focus on the male customer while nail manicure kiosk is mainly for ladies. A toy kiosk will be designed to attract children but food kiosk will suit everyone. Typically, kiosk customers are people who came across the stall, So you need a well managed and proper advertisements.

Who suits for mall kiosk business?

As we say, mall kiosk business is such a simple & easy start business, but Not everyone can run a mall kiosk business well, Why ? the answer is passion+skills. Mall kiosk business it’s a small, flexible & easy start way to get on the business track, but if you want to drive the business train well, you need to spend more time & effort than others. Besides an entrepreneurial mindset, the kiosk owners must be self-motivated individuals who are good at networking, patient to customers, and capable of marketing. You need to manage long term customer first then manage your business.

How does a kiosk business make money?

In most mall used the retail kiosk, the revenue comes from selling ready-made generic products, such as a jewelry kiosk, hat kiosk, shoe kiosk. You buy the niche products from the manufacturer at a wholesale price, then you add your profit & cost on it and sell at a retail price. So you will have a profit margin. In a food beverage kiosk, you will offer a fast-food service or a nice cup of juice, you will earn money from service.

Many newly service kiosk business is popular and has good profit revenue, such as cell phone repair, Shoulder-neck massage, eyebrow threading, etc. For some outdoor kiosk, you can not only make money from selling products or service but also can profit from LED advertisements. Since you have a street outdoor kiosk, you can rent your wall or rooftop to others for advertising.

How much money can a kiosk make?

Kiosk business has a very good profit revenue if runs well. However, kiosk profit is diverse from kiosk size, products selling, service offering & locations. Take a standard food kiosk 10*10 ft for example, in Some medium shopping mall, you can make between $1,500 and $2,500 during an average week. If you have a larger kiosk, you will get more business, likewise, if you are in a higher-level shopping mall, you will get better customers. The only thing keeps in mind is to offer the best products with the best service. Only long term business can make you rich.

What is the growth potential for a kiosk business?

You can start a small kiosk with a small retail merchandising unit (RMU) if you are green-hand to a kiosk business. Or begin with a standard size kiosk. Only with a high-quality product and remarkable service can able to expand your business to an upper level. If you are a smart owner and good at marketing, business management, and finance, there are two ways to grow your business. On one hand, you can eventually make enough money to open a storefront. On the other hand, you can network your kiosk business by copying kiosk in multiple locations. If you have extremely good & worthy products, open franchise to other retailer is also a good idea to grow big.

How much to rent a kiosk at a mall?

Typically, kiosk rent cost varies from location and kiosk size. Different land will have different leaser price, Middle-level shopping mall rents are far less than the top-level like Westfield, or GGP. Just to give a rough idea on the budget of a business plan, Many malls charge the lease cost at a range of $20- $40 / square foot. The best way to know the cost is going to the target location and talk to the landlord or mall manager.

How long can rent a kiosk?

For outdoor kiosk or permanent retail locations, you can rent for a longer time. But in shipping mall or other places, you will have a shorter contract. Typically, the leases spanning 3 to 10 years. There also some short period pop-up store lease, you can send an only a business season with a couple of months.

How much fund is needed to start a kiosk business?

Nowadays, kiosks & carts business is becoming a $ 10 billion industry, The cost of starting an outdoor kiosk or permanent retail kiosk can be steep, Depends on the size of the kiosk, you may spend up to $100,000 or more. While indoor kiosk is quite easy with a lot less risk. The upfront budget for a retail cart for a kiosk ranges from $2000 to $20,000. Of course, high-level shipping mall like Westfield will require you more restrict on materials and design, that will cost you much more compared to a medium center. If you rent a lease with second-hand kiosk will cost far less then build a new kiosk.

How much to design a kiosk?

When you get a lease from the shopping mall. Typically, they will require you to set up the kiosk with a new design. What’s more, the design must be approved by authority before you can move in. Therefore, you need to get a design company to help you achieve a unique modern dazzling design. Usually, a professional design company will charge $ 3000 or more to prepare a standard kiosk or cart design, If you just need a 3D visual you can get it very cheap on Fiverr.  Unique Kiosk offers free kiosk design if you build the kiosk with them. Contact them for details.

After you read above, are you ready to start your own kiosk business? Whether you start indoor mall kiosk or outdoor kiosks, you need to choose a good location. Proper market research is a must before you invest any money. If you are ready to start your own kiosk full of passion, now here we go the detailed steps.

9 steps Starting Your kiosk Business 

Are you ready to start your own kiosk business? Here we are detailed steps for you to ensure that your business is legally compliant and help you grow your run a successful kiosk business. What’s more, you can avoid many business traps and

First of all: Start a business plan.

A practical business plan is worth thousands of dreamed ideas. And a clean plan is essential to success for every business vendors. Before you start a business plan, there are 6 important questions you need to take into consideration.

• What type of business do you want to start? (choose the right business)
• Where are your ideal kiosk location (choose a good place)
• What are the initial costs? (financial budget is important)
• What size of the kiosk? ( choose a proper business scale)
• Who is your target customers? (find out your potential clients, and calculate gross profit)
• What will you name your business? ( unique design logo name )

As long as you get answers for above 6 initial questions, you can go ahead to the next steps. Even though start a kiosk business is not a huge investment, but for some higher mall, it’s still a big amount of money. So, when you decide to set up a kiosk business. You have to make such a practical business plan, With a guiding plan, you can build your own business in at less risk.

Step2: Choose Your Business

In this step, you have to decide what you want to sell, either useful products like cell phone cases or some kind of unique service. Depend on your personal need, you can choose to purchase a kiosk business or set up lease your own, As we know indoor & outdoor Kiosk can accommodate almost all types of retail business, food beverage business, spa service business, etc. You just have to find your skill field as a start. Here Two useful tips for you:

1. Seasonal products are good for temperate kiosk stall(T-shirt retail are good at hot weather district and summer ), daily life products are suited for permanent kiosks.
2. Choose the products you familiar is ten times better than the new skills you learn yesterday.

When you made up mind on what business to do, the rest things will be much easier. But make sure, the one you are going to do is an uprising field. Why say so? Because kiosk carts retail business is most likely on some certain kinds of customers. Only quality products and outstanding service can make your service from violent competition.

Step 3: Prepare Financial 

Whether you going to running an indoor kiosk or outdoor kiosk business, you will need an initial fund which must include in your first business plan on a budget. With a certain amount of funds, you can start a certain standard business. The fund roughly forms the blow aspects.

• kiosk location rent;
• kiosk design & manufacturing cost;
• kiosk installation cost;
• Products inventory cost;
• Staff & worker salary cost;
• Kiosk legal insurance cost etc.

For food & beverage, you also need to calculate the cost for equipment, such as coffee machine, fridge, freezer, ice maker, ice cream machine. Compartment sink etc. Different business will require different, that why you should choose a business that you are familiar with. So you can clearly understand what you are looking for and what the budget needed.

1. If you are buying a new kiosk, you can customize a unique kiosk, but the cost will up to $20,000 to $30,000.
2. If you are just new stater and start with a retail merchandising unit. You can either rent a cart in the mall or buy a new cart and set up yourself.
3. Cart rent cost usually around 15% -20% of your total gross sales amount. Within a small cart, you can make around, if you buying a new cart from Unique Kiosk cost will be around $2000.
4. Carts are best for smaller business and seasonal business while the kiosk is good for long term trading. Obviously Kiosk rent cost is much higher than a portable cart.

Step 4. Find a location.

Typically, kiosk location is the most important characteristics that affect your future revenue. In China, an old word says, “Golden corner, silversides, Metal inner shops.

• Golden Corner’s berth is the first choice because the street corner gathers people from all directions, people have a long foothold, large display area, and high brand exposure, so large chain businesses like street corner stores, such as KFC and Starbucks, like to choose such a golden corner location. If you are going to set up kiosk business for indoor, this rule also works. Corner lease will bring you more traffic and get your kiosk exposed to more audiences.
• Silverside refers to the ports at both ends of the street where people enter. It is also an interesting and time-intensive place for newly arrived businessmen to stay. Because it is not far from Golden Corner, the role of the silver edge is to take advantage of the power to share a piece of the soup. Although the customer is inert, but also within his acceptance distance.
• The Inner shops are belly locations refers to the middle part, which is difficult to operate because of the scattered passenger flow, the decline of shopping interest, What’s more, because there are attractive competitors all over the shop front, it is difficult to survive in the middle shops.

Therefore, Find the right kiosk location and kiosk lease is the key to business success. Talking to the landlord or mall manager and get a good place to start your business. Moreover, if you can stay in the target place one or two days to obverse the real potential customer flow will also helpful for you to make the right decision. Here are 3 tips for you to find the right business location.

6 Useful Tips on Choosing a business location.

1, Get to Know your competitors. If you are opening a retail kiosk selling products while people can find it in a nearby Walmart or storefront, you can hardly survive in the coming month.

2, Get to Know Different locations. Learn as much information as possible of demographic and economic characteristics of the locations, the local business culture. You need to figure out whom you are going to selling to and how can they easily find your store, Standing at the point of a customer and find out the best places.

3, Research on your target customers. For many retail businesses,this is critical. Different products suit for different audience, take a deep look at the community, whether you are starting a business near a station or school or hospital, you need to think, how many people among those will be your customer ? does that potential population density sufficient for support your business?

4, Food Traffic is the key. Most of the business will require large food traffic to increase sales. Without good traffic, the retail business will be chosen soon. By contrast, there are some different service business will require confidentiality or semi-privacy, You may not need to go to compete in high traffic and high rent locations.

• Customer experience -Accessibility. If you are opening an outdoor kiosk where a customer needs to park the car mile away, you can hardly do good business. Consider how accessible the kiosk location will be for everyone who’ll be using it.
• Find out about other businesses & Service. opening a food kiosk near a good business bubble tea beverage bar, you will share the traffic too. Get to know your neighbor to see if you can benefit from nearby businesses. Then look at how they’ll enrich the quality of your kiosk business. From neighbor business study you can also figure out the risk and approximate revenue.

Step 5. Register Paperwork

-Business license, brand, tax, business account, Insurance

Either you start a kiosk business in a shopping mall or outdoor street you need From a legal entity first. On the one hand you can avoid being personally liable business, On the other hand, you can make your business more formal and easy to expand to big. There is much paperwork you should do as follows. You can get an agent to do all the paperwork.

Business license

Different country has a different name for a business license, typically it’s entry license to prove that you can start a certain type of business. It’s the certificate issued by the administrative department for Industry and commerce to the industrial and commercial enterprises and individual operators to engage in certain products and business activities. Its format is uniformly stipulated by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Its registered items are a name, address, the person in charge, amount of funds, economic composition, the scope of operation, mode of operation, number of employees, duration of operation, etc.

Business Brand & LOGO

LOGO is the abbreviation of logotype or trademark. It plays an important role in identifying and promoting the company and business. Through the logo of an image, consumers can easily remember &recognize the main body of the company and brand culture.

In the increasingly competitive global market, strict management and correct use of the Brand logo will provide a more effective, clearer and more cordial market vision. The logo is a visual way of information expression formed in people’s long-term life and practice.

Typically, when you design a logo or business name, The logo must have a certain meaning and can make people understand business or products visual graphics. Which has concise, clear and clear visual transmission effect? Therefore, the business brand name is a highly practical specialized subject involving psychology, aesthetics, color and other fields.

To get a unique designed business name or business LOGO, you have to understand your products or service completely. So that the logo can be created concentrated on the way of graphics, and expresses certain spiritual connotations, conveys specific information, and forms the visual language for people to communicate with each other. What’s more,  As a visual figure to identify and convey information, the brand logo embodies the characteristics of the brand and the image of the enterprise with its concise and graceful modeling language to the clients.

You can design the logo yourself or ask some professional designing company to help you fulfill a unique, easy identified brand name.

Tax & Business account

To manage your business easily, you need to open a business account to record your different types of expenses & profits. With a business account, you can also easily handle tax issues, In order to pay various states & federal tax, you will also need to register for tax. All this work can be done together when you register a company.

Step 6. Kiosk Design & Manufacturing.

When all the preparing working has done properly, you are entering the most important of setting up a kiosk business- How to get a kiosk to build?

In most cases, this work is divided into two parts: kiosk design & kiosk manufacturing. If you are green-hand in starting a kiosk business, the following guides will be helpful for you.

Kiosk Design

A unique kiosk design will give your customer an absolutely different experience. An outstanding kiosk design can also help you attract customers eye contact, Therefore, you need to spend more time to create a user-friendly, unique, modern kiosk design.

How to get a kiosk designed? In the past, many business vendors will go for designing company to get a kiosk designed. But it will be costly. what’s worse, you need to spend long time back and forth to negotiate, revise the design until it can be approved by the landlord. Nowadays, most of the kiosk manufacturer will offer a kiosk design service.  But why choose a kiosk design form a kiosk manufacturer?

• Kiosk builder understands the kiosk deeply then graphic designer from design company or personal designers.
• Kiosk manufacturer familiar with all the materials, (Some of the designers develop a very unique kiosk design but do not have a practical material to build it out).
• Many kiosk manufacturers have a good relationship with different malls, so they understand mall criteria & request.
• Kiosk designer form manufacturer has designed much similar work, you can have many references to choose from and they can come up with many useful ideas and concepts.
• To design a kiosk from manufacture is cheaper.

where to get a kiosk design?

Typically, Different company to charge a kiosk design will be different. If you consulting a designing company they will charge at $2000-$5000 for a standard kiosk concept. A larger size will cost more. If you are designed from kiosk manufacturer usually less then $ 1500.

The world cheapest kiosk design is from UniqueKiosk, If you get your kiosk design from UniqueKiosk, you only need $300 with full 3D design & detailed construction drawings. Whats’ more, They can revise the design concept until you satisfied with it with no extra cost. Moreover, if you build the kiosk with them after design approved, the $300 will be refunded in the cost of kiosk. That means kiosk design for free. Yes, free kiosk design.

Kiosk Manufacturing.

As long as you get your kiosk design approved, you need to find a reliable kiosk manufacturer to help you build it out. If you designed from a kiosk manufacturer, then go ahead to build from them will be a good option.

How to choose a good kiosk manufacturer? There are always to way to find a kiosk manufacturer, online & offline, With the development of electronic business. More and more vendors choose to get it done online. However, there is some concern, is this kiosk supplier capable to build your kiosk ? can they finish the kiosk on time? are they using the right material? Therefore, working with experts is so important.

UniqueKiosk is a professional kiosk manufacturer for indoor & outdoor. Over the past 17 years, we focus on providing high-level mall kiosk, an outdoor kiosk for our clients all over the world. We mainly build a kiosk for the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Dubai & Saudi Arabia countries. Whether you need a custom retail kiosk for franchise outdoor booth, we have plenty of designs, concepts for you.

With over 9000 square meters advanced workshop & more than 200 skilled workers, we can accomplish various kiosk work. Either big or small, we will carry out on time with a high standard. Since we based in Shenzhen( one of the most advanced cities in China). We can offer the best price for you to compare to get it from the local manufacturer.

Tips on Kiosk design & kiosk build

• Kiosk design must exactly follow the mall criteria or landlord request or your design will be rejected for no reason.
• The design must be approved then ask your manufacturer to start building. Or you will have to rebuild again and spend more unnecessary money.
• Do not choose a kiosk manufacturer that price is far too low from the average market. (traps are everywhere)

Step 7. Kiosk installation

Typically, if you get the kiosk from the local or nearby contractor, you have a big advantage that kiosk builder or shopfitter will help you install the kiosk. Of course, they will charge you ahead a lot more money. While if you get it from far away to low cost, you will have to install the kiosk by your own hand.

However, Kiosk from Unique will be designed to easy the installation work. Typically, a kiosk will be divided into several parts. All the kiosk accessories like shop name led lights, tempered glass, posters, handles & locks were already installed on the kiosk. Therefore, when you got the wooden boxes, You just need to open the packages, put them in the right places. Then it’s done. You do not need to spend extra money to hire an expert to install the kiosks.

As for electricity, we have local standard outlets & heavy load wiring pre-install in the kiosk, and each cabinet is finished with male & female connectors. What you have to do it just plug into each other and turn on the main switch. you can hire a mall electrician to help you with it if needed.

Few matters & suggestions that you may meet when you install

• Matter: receive several boxes but do not know which is what & to place in which place.
• Suggestion: Ask your kiosk manufacturer to put a photo or name on packing box, and marked in the 3D design with numbers. You just follow the 3D design with sketch can find each cabinet. If you kiosk manufacturer can off you a full construction plan will be great.

• Matter: Kiosk parts are too big or too long to fit inside the lift.
• Suggestion: Negotiable with manufacture at the beginning with lift dimension and floor that will be.

• Matter: Lights not working or equipment not working.
• Suggestion: Those always happen when getting kiosk from far away, the volt and current are different, So you need to figure out the mall electricity standards and let the manufacture noted so they can install the right components.

• Matter: Kiosk packing box is too heavy when you download from the truck and move to mall kiosk position.
• Suggestions: ask your kiosk manufacturer to install tempered wheels or casters will save you a lot of labor.

• Matter: kiosk is not in horizontal level after finished install
• Suggestion: These situations may happen when the mall floor is not in horizontal level or kiosk lease in a sloped area. So you can ask your manufacturer to provide adaptive sloped floor or kick-plate when kiosk installs top level will be straight & horizontal.

• Matter: Outlet is too low or too high to use
• Suggestion: Provide your equipment size and plug position when you planning a drawing.  Easy for staff & clients using.

Step 8. Hire staff and prepare the inventory

Typically, When finished kiosk installation, shopping mall manager or landlord will come to check your kiosk and give you an approval yes. As long as your following the mall criteria, your kiosk is safe & approved(make sure you have buy insurance for your kiosk business), you can start to open the kiosk and make money.

Based on different occasions, if you are starting a retail kiosk you will have to prepare your inventory or raw materials. For example, a bubble tea kiosk will need necessary fresh fruits, powders, & plastics cups with lids.  If you are opening a service kiosk such as teeth whitening kiosk or eyebrow threading kiosk, you need to hire some skilled staff at this stage.

Step 9. Open your Kiosk.

Finally, we come to the last step, Opening your money-making machine. Typically, the shopping mall will agree with you on an opening date.

Tips on Running a kiosk

When kiosk start opening doesn’t mean that you can be sucked in the sofa and count the money. you still have to be harder to keep your business running healthy and growing graphic. Here are some useful tips on running a kiosk business.

1, Never disappoint any customer. kiosk business is a small area business, You disappoint one and you lost one. The total consumer volume is kinds of fixed group. Only return customer can make your kiosk business running well on the track.

2, Advertising is necessary. Do not count on people have a navigator to find you on the left or right corner of the 4^th floor. You can put different rolling up display stands or ads on different floors to guide and attract your potential customer with the best service or products.

3, Keeps offering great service & products. If you opening a VR kiosk in the mall, you only have certain types of maps, when people familiar with it they will lose interest, keep on providing new, exciting ideas will make your business always fresh.

4, Remarketing on your old customers. They are old words says： people who buy your first time is more likely to buy a second time. Nowadays, everyone owns a cell phone, So, you can set up and Facebook group or other media groups and push the appealing promotions messages to them at certain time. You will likely win some loyal customers.

5, Never stop learning. The last tips which are most important, It,s never too late to learn. the world is changing very fast, kiosk business is kinds of pursuing fashion & popular business. If you are not on the tide of the new society you will be dead on the old beach. Gather as much information on your business fields, learn more business running skills and management books, getting ready for growing big and start an up-level life.

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The money you earn is only profit but the money you are saving are going to your own pocket. So, if you want to start a kiosk business and looking for a cost-effective kiosk or display furniture. Welcome to visit us or send us an inquiry on-Line, Our professional team member will give you a satisfying offer. Our Products are below:

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