ARS has been perfecting the design and capabilities of dispensing kiosks for over two decades. Today, we are the proud supplier of leading automated retail analysis services, hardware, equipment and software solutions.

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The company arose out of the entrepreneurial vision of a hotel gift shop operator who sought to create profitable boutiques that could operate without a clerk. As a result of this retailing challenge, the concept of an automated store capable of continuously selling hundreds of items that hotel guests need and want, when and where they want them (without an attendant at a cash register), was born.

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The new-generation of automated stores, deployed in 1996, generated over a million transactions. The equipment not only provided real-time information on performance, inventory and advanced payment technology, it also engaged customers with a proprietary touch screen and an in-house-developed user interface that made it simple to promote brands, offer customer convenience and gather important customer data. It could to be configured to accommodate a variety of products and promotions—all using a remotely-monitored network that provided real-time maximum data security, flexibility and unparalleled control.

 

Jim Phelps became an officer of the company in 1998, and its principal owner in 2001. Between 1998 and 2008, ARS began to ardently pursue a store operations model, while continuing to improve its prototype dispensing software and hardware. This led to an intensive zero-based redesign of the retailing kiosk beginning in 2008. Information from countless interactions with customers and retailers has been incorporated into the ARS flagship product, Leonardo.

 

Leonardo is a remarkably versatile master of automated retailing that can give retailers unprecedented reliability, visibility, usability and modularity. Aptly named, as the design is homage to the accomplishments of Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci.