Win Win Situation The Sensible Use Of Qr Codes In The Store

Well-intentioned, poorly implemented…

Imagine the following situation: You are strolling through the store of a young, hip fashion chain on a shopping Saturday. Between the countless clothes racks, your gaze stops on a potential favorite item and you begin to fight your way through the mountain of unsorted sizes. And as is so often the case, your size is not included. They are a little disappointed and continue to look for alternatives. Although this situation sounds very familiar to you, after three identical attempts you give up your search and leave the shop in frustration. Such negative shopping experiences lead to frustration and each time – consciously or unconsciously – they reduce the motivation to continue shopping in your store or even to enter it again.

A company’s solution approach looks like this:

In addition to the product information, the clothing labels also have a QR code underneath that says “Not your size? Check it online!”. Actually not a bad idea…the sale should be moved to the online channel if there is a risk of a purchase being canceled in the shop. However, a closer look reveals two weak points that need to be taken into account:

• Placement of the QR code
• Using the QR code

The placement of the QR code

The so-called tag is usually attached to clothing in inconspicuous places so as not to damage it. This means that the request for online shopping does not depend on youvisible area, if – as is usual in most shops – the clothing size is also displayed on the clothes hooks for quicker browsing. I.e. thePlacement of the QR code is essential for its use! If the appropriate item is found in the POS, purchased and the tag is removed at home and the code is discovered, it has been noticed, but not by the customer segment that the marketer was targeting.

It should be used by potential customers who have not yet found the right item of clothing and who are at risk of abandoning their purchase.

Therefore: Make the QR code visible immediately and in such a way that a quick, appropriate service solution from the company is offered in the shortest possible frustration phase. One solution would be to print the code on the presentation area, which is used for price communication and immediately catches the eye.

The benefits of the QR code

Now to the benefit of the code for the customer: Taking his smartphone out of his pocket in a POS, opening the code reader, scanning the code and waiting for the page to load costs the customer effort. In addition, there may be other customers pushing past, loud music and stuffy air, which further influence the situation. As a company, you have to put in this effortpositive online experienceand oneclearly recognizable benefitsbehind the QR code. If the subjective costs outweigh the benefits, a negative balance arises in the customer’s perception, which is attributed to your company.

If you scan the code shown above, you will… go to the home page. This is where the issue of utility comes into play. Redirecting to the homepage does not provide the customer with a satisfactory result because they neither immediately see the desired product nor the appropriate product category. The individual customer journey he is currently in is interrupted by the inappropriate landing page. Even entering the item number in the search does not lead to the product. The promise “Not your size? Check it online!” so it cannot be redeemed at all.

Therefore: Be sure to pay attention to QR codesTo create a service characterand not to use it as a generic gimmick (home page as a landing page).

Link to the relevant product or, if it is already sold out, to alternatives. Another option would be to display the stock levels for each shop in order to motivate the customer to contact the sales staff and have the item of clothing brought to them.

Conclusion

The use of QR codes for multichannel fusion at the POS makes sense for the company if it is designed sensibly for the customer and offers solutions. To be noted

1) choose the placement to suit the shopping situation and

2) to provide a straightforward solution to the current problem.