In 1971, Samuel C. Hurst, Ph.D., invented the world’s first electronic touch interface in an Oak Ridge basement. Half a century later, the device’s descendants are used for everything from paying for purchases to tracking global shipping and receiving data. And the company Hurst started, Elographics (now Elo Touch Solutions), continues to roll out products and services from its global headquarters in Knoxville.
“Elo makes the touch screen technology you see and use every day – at point-of-sale registers, self-checkout stations, restaurant kiosks, digital signs, even in airports and hospitals,” says John Lamb, chief marketing officer. “With more than 30 million installations in more than 80 countries, chances are you’ve used an ELO screen without even knowing it. We like to say: #EloIsEverywhere – because it really is”
The company moved to California in 1986 but reopened a Knoxville office around 2014. That was followed in 2021 by a global operations center. This 90,000-square-foot facility handles logistics, tech support, product configuration and other key functions. It’s a major hub for ELO’s global business and is now the company’s worldwide headquarters.
“Knoxville isn’t just where we started – it’s where we feel at home,” says Nathan Swisshelm, vice president of Elo’s global supply chain. “The region offers great talent, access to major transportation routes and a community that values innovation. Plus, it’s cost-effective, which helps us grow while staying competitive.”
A fun fact he likes to bring up is that Elo was at the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, where the company fitted 33 televisions with its transparent touch panels – one of the very first times the general public got to use a touch screen. The company has also gotten involved with the Knoxville Technology Council, or KTech, working with other tech companies in the area to raise the area’s profile as a technology hub and innovation center.
Growth parallels technology
Elo’s business fortunes have risen along with the increasingly ubiquitous touch screens found at most every point-of-sale encounter, from coffee shop counters to restaurant tables.
The screens also are tied into back-office functions, serving as hubs for tracking inventory, placing orders and other non-consumer-facing functions. Other high-usage areas include hospitality and, increasingly, health care segment segments such as pharmacies and clinics, for payment processing and inventory management.
Those uses, and the ability to keep up with both intelligence and communications technology, explain why Dimension Market Research says the global touch screen market is projected to grow from $77.2 billion in 2023 to an estimated $158.3 billion by 2032. The market for the devices also took off during the COVID pandemic and have remained popular due to their ability to produce a touchless payment transaction.
Business Wire reports there were 258 million POS units worldwide in 2022, and their usage has spread around the world.
Strategic Revenue Insights reports North America accounts for about 35% of the global market share, while the Asia-Pacific region is rapidly growing to close that gap. Europe is a longtime user of systems, especially in retail and hospitality, meaning there’s a steady if not rapidly growing demand.
Globally known names
In addition to its Knoxville headquarters, the company also opened a 300,000-square-foot factory and tech center in Suzhou, China, in 2016. It also maintains a presence in Argentina, Mexico, India, Belarus, Japan and Taiwan, as well as satellite U.S. offices in California and Texas. It posts some significant stats around usage, as well: more than 30 million installations, more than 400 global patents and a product presence in more than 80 countries.
Elo’s screens and supporting technology are used by some of the biggest brand names in the world, including Taco Bell and other YUM! Brands in fast food, Amazon in logistics and Target in retail.
Recently, JC Penney began using Elo Pay M60 handhelds and Elo Pay M100 tablets to take checkout directly to customers on the store floor. It’s a mobile-first approach that makes shopping faster and more convenient, Lamb says, and another example of how ELO is connecting with retailers as they rethink the customer experience.
Western and workwear retailer Boot Barn began working with Elo in 2018 with the launch of RANGEFINDER, an in-store kiosk that extends the store via an “endless aisle,” says Jon Kosoff, Boot Barn’s chief digital officer.
“It helps customers browse inventory and guides them through boot-buying decisions,” he says. “It allows Boot Barn to be ‘omni channel’ that enables our customers and our partners to filter based on store inventory or global inventory. It also allows our Boot Barn partners to help customers with their online returns in stores.”
Since deploying RANGEFINDER, Boot Barn has deepened its partnership with Elo by standardizing on Elo touch screen hardware for its point-of-sale systems, Kosoff says.
“Elo devices are now in all 459 of our stores. We’ve also expanded into mobile devices by enabling store partners to support buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) transactions and in-store fulfillment (ISF). The Elo mobile devices help our partners assist customers with in-aisle product lookups using via “endless aisle.” And now we have our AI agent, “Cassidy,” on the Elo mobile device to enhance our partners’ experience.
The broadened touch screen footprint now will only expand into the future, Kosoff predicts, based on how consumers want to interact with their chosen retail destinations. That’s equally true of the stores themselves, and how they organize inventory, delivery and other core functions.
“Touch screen capabilities are essential to Boot Barn’s daily operations,” he says. “In the front-of-house, they drive everything from customer-facing kiosks to efficient and intuitive point-of-sale checkouts and handheld devices – all of which contribute to a smoother and more responsive customer experience. It allows us to operate seamlessly as an omni-channel retailer.
Frequent rollouts of new tech
Rapid growth also means keeping up with rapidly changing technology. In the past, these devices have run on cellular or landlines. Now cloud-based models have begun to take market share. Fortune Business Insights reports 60% of transactions were made on cloud platforms in 2020. And as it is everywhere else, AI is making its presence felt in the industry. A ConnectPOS survey showed that 40% of U.S.-based businesses were looking to adopt an AI-based POS solution within 12 months.
Earlier this year, Elo introduced its fifth payment-integrated product in just three years. With continued investments in AI-powered features, flexible payment solutions and interactive technologies, Elo remains focused on creating smarter, more seamless experiences across retail, hospitality, health care and beyond, Lamb says.
“Our mobile devices – like tablets and handhelds – typically offer cellular connectivity versions, while all Elo computer-based systems support both Wi-Fi and Ethernet. Most installs tend to be hardwired given that they are fixed location installations,” he says. “From a cloud standpoint, most customer software is installed locally but connects to cloud-based services for things like point-of-sale or content management.”
“On our end, EloView, our SaaS-based device management platform. enables customers to manage and deploy apps remotely to their Android-based Elo devices – whether that’s via APK or a simple URL to a web-based app.”
The AI piece is typically driven by the software layer, but our hardware is built to support it,” he adds. “Our latest Gen 5 Android systems feature Qualcomm QCS6490 processors capable of 12 TOPS – perfect for enabling on-device AI experiences. On the Windows side, our Intel i3/i5/i7 compute options provide plenty of headroom for AI workloads as well.”
“A real-world example is Boot Barn’s AI assistant on Elo handhelds. It builds complete outfits based on a single item selected by a store associate – smart, fast and frictionless,” he says.
Keeping up with AI and consumer-oriented technology isn’t an option, Lamb points out.
“Tech is changing fast – and so are customer expectations,” he says. “People want faster, easier, more personalized experiences, whether they’re ordering food, checking in at a clinic or paying for groceries. That’s a challenge for any tech company, but it’s also where Elo shines. We design our products to be flexible and future-ready, so businesses can keep up with the pace of change. From interactive kiosks to mobile checkouts, our job is to make technology work better for people – wherever they are.”