How to Use QR Codes in Retail: 14 Brands Doing it Right
Learn to use QR Codes in retail from this helpful guide, and dive into the QR Code campaign teardown of popular brands like Tesco, Diesel, Heinz, and Lacoste.
Nearly 25% of all QR Codes are used in the retail industry alone. Why?
Because forward-thinking retailers have discovered how to use QR Codes- from acquiring new customers to improving the perfect in-store experience.
QR Codes can also help retailers compete with e-commerce by introducing digital touchpoints at a fraction of the cost.
You can use QR Codes in retail in various ways, which we will discuss below.
Ways to use QR Codes in retail (use-cases)
1. Increase traffic to your brand website
Retail marketers can use QR Codes to link to a website when scanned to drive traffic to the business’ store page and make purchasing easier for customers.
💡Tip: Add a clear QR Code CTA to let the customer know what they get if they enter your website. For example, you can add a CTA such as “Scan to learn more” or “Scan for more details.”
2. Reveal discount offers and coupons
Another appealing way to use QR Codes in the retail industry is to link your discount coupons and offers with a QR Code and combine them with an advertising slogan or tagline that compels customers to scan your QR Codes.
Coupon QR Codes can be used to apply discounts on any item and have versatile use cases.
3. Make a phone call or send an email to your support services
You can use QR Codes to help customers make quick phone calls to your customer support services.
Email QR Codes also allow your customers to send preset text messages and emails drafted and ready to send, with the recipient and subject line already added. All the user has to do is hit the send button.
4. Increase signups for newsletters and product notifications
QR Codes linked to signup forms are helpful for retailers in gathering customer emails and contact details. Lead generation in this format can help a business keep its customers in the loop, like updating them about the availability of products and new launches.
📕Tip: While sending out update bulk emails, follow good practices, such as personalizing and making them more interactive.
5. Get valuable feedback and gain customer insight
There’s no escaping the value of customer feedback for your product, as it can help improve your product and understand consumer behavior and patterns.
You can use survey QR Codes with feedback forms by placing QR Codes on packaging and isles with a clear CTA asking for feedback.
6. Get customers to your store
Retailers can print location QR Codes on display ads, banners, and stores to help customers navigate to the nearest outlet through Google Maps. Alternatively, you can connect QR Codes to an indoor navigation map to help navigate a specific section within the store.
💡Pro Tip: You can automate the creation of bulk QR Codes with Uniqode’s bulk QR Code generator.
7. Increase social media visibility
The importance of social media for retail marketing is indisputable in 2024. QR Codes can quickly get users to your social channels with a simple scan.
You can use social media QR Codes to increase your brand visibility by linking them to social media profiles. This is an excellent way to gain more likes, shares, and subscribers.
8. QR Codes on products to boost app downloads
Trying to get users to your app and increase your online retail sales? An app download QR Code is a simple and effective way to solve this problem.
Placing these QR Codes on product packaging, store aisles, or posters and linking them to the app store pages are simple yet effective techniques for encouraging downloads.
9. Business Cards to share contact information
Another fascinating application of the QR Code is its use as a Digital Business Card (DBC)(to share contact information. Rather than providing contact details on your offline display ads, a better way to share contact details is to link them with your QR Codes.
You can use it to boost retail sales and open a dialogue with prospective customers.
9 Examples of popular brands using QR Codes in retail industry
Here’s how popular brands have used QR Codes in retail over the years to enhance consumer experience globally.
1. Heinz uses QR Codes for environmental awareness
Embedding QR Codes on product packages makes for a meaningful addition to your product when you use it to reveal product-specific offers and discount packages rather than just redirecting users to the product information page.
When Heinz introduced environmentally friendly packaging, they added QR Codes to their product packages. Scanning these QR Codes led customers to an online green trivia quiz.
In addition to the typical big-box retailers, even popular niche luxury retail brands such as Ralph Lauren have implemented QR Codes in offline ads, such as posters on display windows and magazine ads, for almost a decade.
3. Diesel uses QR Codes to verify the authenticity of denim
Diesel, the famous clothing retail brand, added QR Codes to its denim products to help users verify the authenticity of their products and avoid counterfeiters.
This ‘Scan for Authenticity’ call-to-action, added to the denim along with the QR Codes, acts as an authentication tool to verify the product before users purchase.
The UK-based retail giant Tesco first created virtual stores in South Korea as a simple ‘Shop on the Go’ solution for customers with long working hours.
They placed virtual displays of 500 products containing QR Codes at the Seonreung subway station in downtown Seoul. Customers could scan these QR Codes using the “Homeplus” app on their smartphones and have the products delivered right to their doorstep.
This initiative helped Tesco retarget and regain customers who were previously accessible due to their busy schedules. The enthusiastic response to the benefits of these virtual stores led Tesco to launch more virtual stores in the UK as well.
5. Purely Elizabeth uses QR Codes redirecting to a specialized landing page
Specialized landing pages play a vital role in retail, as they help increase conversions and brand awareness. QR Codes that redirect visitors to these landing pages give users a quick and easy way to get users into your funnel for better targeting and conversion.
Purely Elizabeth, a US-based health food retailer that specializes in making healthy and delicious products accessible to the public, uses QR Codes for this purpose.
They used QR Codes to redirect users to a customized landing page that introduces them to the brand and product catalog. Users can also learn about the healthy ingredients used and recreate different recipes using their products.
6. Decathlon’s in-store QR Codes for home delivery
Since the inception of QR Codes, retailers have been trying to find new ways to implement them to improve customer engagement and in-store experience with proper delivery management. One such method is deploying QR Codes on receipts for the items purchased and price tags attached to products.
Decathlon used this idea of deploying QR Codes on price tags when it introduced an app that helped customers skip waiting in long queues with its ‘Scan and Go’ feature. The app helped customers scan QR Codes on price tags and make payments directly from the app.
7. Lacoste used QR Codes for improved customer experience
Lacoste is one such retail brand that realized the potential of QR Codes way back in 2012. The famous French retail brand added a personal touch to its regular print ads by combining them with custom QR Codes.
This initiative helped the retailer create a personalized mobile magazine that lets users watch videos of lookbooks from the fall collection and also make a purchase from the clothing line with the ‘Scan to shop’ feature.
Retail giants such as Walmart and Target were among the first brick-and-mortar retailers to implement in-store QR Codes to facilitate quick cashless payment systems. These payment systems helped attract more millennials who liked the idea of being able to shop without carrying cash around at all times.
Learn from the best: How retail brands used Uniqode to engage customers
1. Mr Apple uses QR Codes on retail stickers for consumer connection
QR Codes in retail are not limited to simple CPG brands. With little extra effort, QR Codes can sell any good.
A creative way to do this is to place QR Code stickers on Apples and other fruits to turn perishable goods into touchpoints.
Mr Apple, New Zealand's largest apple grower, precisely placed QR Codes on PLU or Price Look-Up Stickers.
This helped them maintain direct consumer connections, which was not possible before due to their B2B model.
Moreover, this solution addressed multiple issues, such as
Connecting with consumers despite the wholesaler-retailer model
Overcoming language barriers through localized QR Code links
2. Marketing Werks creates an omnichannel retail experience for customers
Marketing Werks, a US experiential marketing agency, understood the importance and power of QR Codes in retail. They leveraged QR Codes primarily as a physical-to-digital portal at touchpoints such as in-store signage and demo stalls inside retail stores.
This helped them create an omnichannel retail experience with QR Codes for sampling digital products, creating product awareness, allowing customers to order items online, and reaching new market segments.
3. Maesa uses QR Codes for regulatory retail compliance
Being in the retail industry usually demands compliance with regulatory requirements for consumer protection. Due to strict laws, the CBD(Cannabidiol) retail industry faces this challenge the most.
States such as Oregon, New York, and Texas have imposed CBD regulations that mandate the use of QR Codes linking to authentication certificates on packaging. Maesa, a beauty incubator, bulk-created and placed QR Codes linking to compliance certificates on their CBD-infused products.
4. Canada Beef uses QR Codes in retail for product education
Canada Beef placed QR Codes on its packaged beef products to enhance customer engagement and share educational content.
Placing QR Codes on different touchpoints, such as packaging, posters, and promotional materials, could provide users access to recipes, nutritional information, and meal inspiration.
Moreover, using dynamic QR Codes facilitated easy tracking and modification, and the analytics helped them refine their approach based on user behavior.
💥Results: The strategy led to deeper customer understanding, with insights showing that consumers often scanned codes at home. Additionally, campaigns such as contests encouraged more interactions, leading to improved consumer engagement and targeted messaging.
5. Cosmetic retailer Davines uses QR Codes for product education
Davines Group, a leading haircare brand, sought to enhance the accessibility and educational value of its printed materials for professionals. The company adopted dynamic QR Codes through Uniqode, which allowed them to share multilingual content without creating separate landing pages.
These codes are linked to resources such as video tutorials, PDFs with product information, and language-specific landing pages. This strategy enabled Davines to update content and track user engagement continuously.
QR Codes are not very heavy on the pocket to implement, even for smaller retail stores. For smaller businesses, using QR Codes is a way of making it easier for customers to connect.
High Versatility
QR Codes are highly versatile and can be applied in various use cases, as we’ve already seen above, but they are not limited to those. QR Codes have a variety of use cases across all industries that have already been tried and proven successful.
Ease of implementation
QR Codes can effortlessly be deployed within traditional marketing campaigns, such as posters, billboards, or magazine ads.
Native QR Code scanning capabilities on the latest Android and iOS phones have also made it easier for customers to scan these QR Codes and access the offerings of these campaigns.
Measurable results
QR Codes also provide the capability to track the number of times they have been scanned, thereby making it possible for businesses to track and measure the effectiveness of their QR Code campaigns.
Uniqode’s QR Code marketing solution provides advanced analytics to track and measure campaigns that would give your retail marketing strategies an edge over competitors.
Crowd appeal
Owing to the innovations in QR Code implementation that we have seen in the past few years, we now have dynamic QR Codes, QR Codes with logos, QR Code games, etc., which are quite appealing to millennials.
It helps you stay ahead of the competition
Since QR Codes have been around for over a decade now, many larger retailers have already started using QR Code campaigns - This makes it even more crucial for the rest of the market to keep up with the technology trend and stay well ahead of the competition.
Will eventually replace barcodes
Another reason why QR Codes will be crucial for retailers is the Project Sunrise initiative. As a part of this initiative, several brands will have replaced traditional barcodes with GS1 QR Codes by 2027, providing consumers with more detailed product information.
📕Learn: Wondering what a GS1 QR Code is and how can you get one?Check out our GS1 explainer guide for answers to all your queries!
Can help ease retail payments
Retailers can use QR Codes to offer customers a quick and straightforward payment method. With QR Code payments slowly becoming the norm in many countries, using it in your retail business can give you an edge by facilitating faster checkouts and higher customer satisfaction.
Use QR Codes in retail for a new level of customer engagement
Creating memorable and interactive customer experiences will differentiate great retailers from good ones.
With Uniqode’s dynamic QR Code Generator, you can create an inspiring and creative QR Code campaign by:
Changing URLs and avoiding reprinting costs
Track your QR Codes and understand user behaviour
Retarget users with integrations from GA and MetaPixel
Extensively customize QR Codes to make them stand out
With industry-leading SOC-2 and GDPR compliance, you can be assured your retail QR Code is in safe hands.
Uniqode’s QR Codes provide an end-to-end solution to combine your online and offline operations for enhanced retail campaigns.
Up your retail game today by giving Uniqode’s 14-day trial a shot for free—no CC required!
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