Koreans visit Tesco through subway hoardings
Fresh fruit and veg from the underground
Tesco is causing quite a stir in South Korea with a virtual shopping experience that encourages customers to scan billboards on the subway.
The company, which is known as HomePlus in South Korea, has started filling subway stations with virtual store shelves - billboards of products with QR codes attached. Shoppers simply scan what they would like, go to the virtual checkout and organise delivery, KoreAm reports.
Due to long work hours, would-be shoppers often have little time to visit the stores themselves and with 20 per cent of the population using smartphones, the initiative has apparently been a glowing success.
As a result, HomePlus has become the leading online retailer in Korea and has bridged the gap between its leading offline rival, E-Mart.
We then called Tesco to see if it had plans to bring such billboards to Blighty.
The supermarket chain said Brits already have a similar service through the Tesco Groceries app for iOS and Android. Customers can scan barcodes or vocalise product names to make online purchases before organising a time for delivery too.
No word on virtual shop shelves on the London Tube, though. ®
COMMENTS
What a great opportunity
What a great opportunity for a practical joker with a bunch of "alternative" QR code stickers.
Good on 'em!
I used to think home delivery was being a bit lazy, thought I should be down the supermarket duking it out with everyone else on a Saturday morning. Tried home delivery a few times and the one thing it really helped with was stopping me buying nibbles! You know, you're fed up getting all your stuff in the trolley, then you spot the biscuit aisle and next thing you've spent £15 on sugary rubbish. Losing weight and saving money!
I've got this vision of someone scanning the wrong bit
and ending up buying the advertising hoarding.
Wow..
What a great idea, so obvious once someone else has thought of it...
By that logic...
"But to your newcomer who walks down the street it's just a meaningless word"
And so is Morrisons, Sainsburys, ASDA, Waitrose, Lidl, Netto, Co-Op, Safeway, etc, but no-one had a problem figuring out what they were for. I believe thats what a marketing department is for too.
