Elderly Consumers Struggling with Ubiquitous Payment Kiosks

Elderly consumers had difficulty or failed to use the kiosks properly. (image: McDonald’s Korea)

SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — With the installation of touch screen-based digital kiosks spreading throughout South Korean society centering on restaurant businesses, elderly consumers are having difficulty adapting to the new technology.

According to a survey conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) of 300 elderly consumers over the age of 65, 81.6 percent said they had used an ordering and payment kiosk before.

The 245 elderly consumers with experience using kiosks evaluated the degree of ease in using kiosks at 75.5 on average (on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 means very easy to use and 0 means very difficult to use).

In response to a question asking about the biggest inconveniences when using kiosks, the largest share of the respondents (51.5 percent) picked the complicated steps that they had to go through to place an order, followed by 49 percent who pointed to the sense of discomfort they felt due to the people waiting behind them, and 44.1 percent who said they had difficulty reading instructions and menus on the kiosks.

The KCA conducted a separate survey of a total of ten elderly consumers, consisting of five aged between 65 and 69 and another five over 70 years of age, and observed their use of kiosks at stores.

The survey showed that most of them had difficulty or failed to use the kiosks properly.

At fast-food restaurants, in particular, all of them failed to place an order through a kiosk. Five out of them had difficulty in understanding the categorization of kiosk menus.

Even at bus terminal kiosks, three out of the five elderly consumers over 70 years of age failed to purchase tickets and all ten of the elderly consumers had difficulty with at least one step of the kiosks’ ticket-issuing process.

J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)