QR codes: a magnet for tech-savvy shoppers?

Supermarkets will soon have a potentially powerful way to merchandise with relevancy to tech-savvy shoppers – think Millennials, Generation X and up the age scale. By using technology to instantly share more information about products than appear on their packages, retailers could build credibility helping shoppers make better-informed purchase decisions.

Supermarkets will soon have a potentially powerful way to merchandise with relevancy to tech-savvy shoppers – think Millennials, Generation X and up the age scale. By using technology to instantly share more information about products than appear on their packages, retailers could build credibility helping shoppers make better-informed purchase decisions. 

Retailers will not only earn the trust of such deliberate shoppers, but they’ll help bring categories to life in new ways – all by showcasing Quick Response (QR) codes on product packages and shelf tags. When shoppers take a cell phone picture of the code, they are linked to videos, websites or other content that detail nutritional or product sourcing information, promotions, contests or marketing campaigns or other content specific to the product.

The Lempert Report wrote earlier about an integrated weight-loss campaign between Special K and Lucky Magazine that used QR codes to engage shoppers at the shelf. Since then, Supermarket News reported that Dave’s Killer Bread has supplied QR shelf tags to PCC Natural Markets to send shoppers to a video about the bread company.

As we see this trend lift off, The Lempert Report suggests the following:

• Supermarkets could attract a whole new shopper group by devoting high-profile endcap displays to QR-equipped items.  We believe a segment of store visitors would be intrigued enough to make the store a destination so they could come to this spot; this will make it important for stores to note their presence of QR displays in circulars, so it becomes part of the pre-trip planning.
• Smaller suppliers could use QR codes to wedge their way onto more supermarket shelves. If their technology becomes a magnet to certain shoppers, that edge could earn them some elbow room.
• Consumers might possibly feel that brands innovative in their use of technology would also be innovative in the products they bring to market.

In our view, QR codes could quickly become a trip-building appeal that helps move the focus off of price and more onto the substance of what people might actually buy.