The E-tailing (or e-commerce) industry is developing rapidly globally. According to the eMarketer forecast, e-commerce sales will grow 20,1% in 2014 to reach a staggering $ 1,5 total by the end of this year. This growth is being led by consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, who will spend more than their North American counterparts in 2014.
Electronic retailers are more and more investing in digital advertising to attract consumers to their electronic stores. It has become popular to use e-mail, social media, and researching advertising tools to target online objects. However, without brick-and-mortar stores, how can electronic retailers draw the customers’ concern in shopping malls? How do you continue committing when a product has been transferred?
Take a leaf out of Amazon’s book if you want to use QR codes to improve your brand’s eCommerce experience, suggests Brian Klais, CEO at Pure Oxygen Labs. Like Amazon, your brand could include QR codes in print catalogs or other forms of advertising that direct consumers back to your website for more information, reviews, or other in-depth content like video.
You could also include QR codes on your product packaging, says Mofluid cofounder Roberto Garvin. These can be used to educate customers about the product and encourage them to repurchase products when they run out.
QR codes can also be used to improve the back-end of your eCommerce experience by replacing traditional payment methods, notes the team at Chargeback Gurus. In doing so, the credit card data that hackers seek is removed from eCommerce company servers. Instead, data never leaves the customer’s phone.
With QR codes, everything is trackable, too, writes Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes. Just like your website, all online activity can be tracked, including where and when users interacted with your codes. “When it comes to gauging the effectiveness of real-world marketing assets like billboards, flyers and print ads, being able to close the loop like this is exceedingly rare, not to mention exceedingly valuable,” says Holmes.
Here are 3 ways to use QR Codes in E-commerce:
Virtual shopping
Displaying your products on the wall banners and offering mobile shopping options to consumers. Clients can see more details of product images on the screen by scanning a QR Code and making purchases with their smartphones. Tesco has used this technique to allow customers to go shopping for grocery goods in subway stations. Tesco Korea reported a 130% increase in online sales due to the QR Code campaign.
Getting feedback instantly
Putting a QR Code created from barcode generator software on your product’s packaging. After the product is distributed, customers can select to scan QR Codes and fill in the mobile form if they have a complaint or response. Papa John (though not a retailer) runs a similar campaign by placing a QR Code on a pizza box.
Providing additional product information
If the product you sell online is made at home, you can add the QR Code generated from barcode software on the product or its packaging. When scanning the code, clients are moved to a mobile page that provides essential goods information such as nutrition information, washing instructions, side effects, and allergy prevention.
Manufacturers of packaged consumer goods and food brands like Nestle, Coca-cola, and McDonald’s have used this technique to attract purchasers. E-retailers that have products at home can easily follow to start communicating with customers at negligible costs.
Don’t hesitate to create a QR Code today with our Free QR Code Generator!
