Chicago Kiosk Startup Makes Deal With Groupon

SmartDigital's interactive kiosks, like this one at Chicago's Water Tower Place, will now feature Groupon deals. The startup and Groupon will also be bringing the kiosks to Miami and New York.

Image: SmartDigital

Instead of landing in email in-boxes or on smartphones, Groupon deals will now be at the fingertips of consumers on the go via a partnership that the deal company forged with a Chicago startup that provides interactive kiosks.

The company’s featured daily deals and its Groupon Now hyperlocal deals, which expire within a few hours, will start appearing on the approximately 30 SmartDigital kiosks in Chicago today and will be rolled out to more than 100 machines throughout the city over the next 90 days, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The kiosks, located in busy Chicago areas such as Navy Pier, Water Tower Place and the Hyatt Regency McCormick, will allow users to buy vouchers right at the kiosk. Groupon subscribers can do so by logging on and paying with a credit card that is on file while non-members can buy vouchers by swiping their credit cards at the kiosks.

It’s a nice deal for SmartDigital chief executive officer George Burciaga, also the founder of smarTechs.net, who was named state of Illinois Business Person of the Year and has gained a reputation as a Hispanic entrepreneur on the rise. He told Crain’s Chicago Business that the company will have 100 kiosks in Chicago within 90 days and will begin deploying machines in Miami within two months and in New York within four months. He declined to disclose the company’s revenues but said that it has handled 500,000 interactions on its kiosks, and that it will share revenues with Groupon for kiosk transactions.

Groupon spokeswoman Julie Mossler told the Tribune that the daily deals company has previously experimented with kiosks in bars, but the SmartDigital partnership marks the first time Groupon is making its deals available on outdoor terminals.

Some of the SmartDigital kiosks that will feature Groupon deals already offer information such as bus and train tracking applications, interactive advertising and news provided through an arrangement with the Tribune Co. Other kiosks placed around Chicago will feature strictly Groupon deals.