Tag Archives: qr codes

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Advantages and Disadvantages of QR Codes

QR or the quick code has become a popular technology used extensively by many retailers around the world recently. Unlike the regular bar codes located on the commercial packaging, the QR code is a comprehensive code that can be scanned and decoded with smartphones. The best example of a company using QR codes for in-store payments is Starbucks.  

It may look as simple as the black and white squares, but these codes have the capacity to store a large amount of information. They make an excellent option for connecting the offline and online world seamlessly. Customers can make payments through QR codes by scanning them using their smartphones, and the retailers can accept payments directly to their bank accounts or mobile wallets with these codes. 

A Brief on its History

Denso Wave, a famous Japanese automobile manufacturing company, launched QR codes back in 1994. The main purpose of launching these codes was to deal with the limitations of barcodes. 

The quick response code was designed to store infinite information within small white and black squares. These codes started gaining popularity in Japan in 2002 when the country launched smartphones with the ability to scan and read QR codes. Since then the popularity of QR codes has skyrocketed.  

QR Code Advantages

A QR code is used as a marketing tool to attract more people to your business. It’s one of the ideal ways to turn your prospects into regular customers. Here are a few major benefits of using QR codes for your business.

  • Good for Networking

As mentioned earlier, QR codes are not the regular barcodes printed on your company’s package. It is a marketing technique that can get your customers to your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages. Bringing your audience to your social media means higher engagement and more attention. These people will spread the word about your brand to their social media friends.

  • Call-to-Action

You can use QR codes to direct your audience to instructional posts, websites, landing pages, emails, and trailers. Businesses have started linking these codes to the email and call function where people are directed to your email page as soon as they scan the code. Some retailers allow their audience a huge discount if they scan the QR code. 

  • It is Versatile

Another advantage of QR codes is their versatility. You can use it for a wide variety of purposes ranging from social media marketing to online transactions. In addition to directing people to your landing pages and social platforms, a QR code can be used to make payments. You can integrate different payment methods into your QR code, thus allowing your audience to choose a convenient payment option.

  • It Makes You Creative

Ideally, the QR code is the black and white squares that can be scanned in simple taps. However, it comes with infinite creative possibilities. You can make it look super interesting by using a personalized and colorful QR code, designed for your business. It’s a great way to make your brand stand out from your competitors and attract a wider audience.

  • Your Customers Find Them Attractive

Customers like QR codes for a few reasons. For starters, they are easy to use. All your customers need is a simple scanning and they will be taken to your company’s landing page or email address. They no longer need to write the website address or remember the email. 

Besides, only a few people remember to visit your website later. QR codes make your customers’ life a lot easier by allowing them to visit your website by scanning the code. If you make it easier for your audience to find the latest offers and connect with your brand, there is a good chance they will convert. 

  • It Helps You Go Digital

With QR codes, you can save time and money on traditional advertising campaigns. It is the ultimate way of going digital with your business. You no longer need to get posters, flyers, and other paper materials for your company’s publicity. 

Instead, a QR code is all your customers need to find just about any type of information about your business – be it the latest product launch or your website’s landing page. It also saves you the cost of traditional marketing methods. Printing flyers and brochures can cost you hundreds of dollars. QR code, on the other hand, is a one-time investment.

Disadvantages of QR Codes

A QR code comes with a set of limitations for businesses and customers. Here are a few disadvantages of using QR codes.

  • Not the Best Customer Experience

QR codes were designed to direct people to the company’s social media, landing page, and other informative content in a single snap. However, your audience needs to download a QR code reader in order to make it work. So, for those who are not comfortable with installing a new software app on their device, the QR code is not a viable option.

  • You May Have to Offer a Better Reward to Your Audience

A QR code is useful for businesses that are willing to offer exciting rewards and promotional deals to their audience. So, just linking your social media or directing your users to your email may frustrate your customers, as this is the basic information. If you don’t have any special discount to offer, the QR codes might not work for you. 

  • It isn’t Accepted by all Customers

QR codes can get your business on a digital platform, but it is not embraced by customers looking for traditional marketing techniques. If your audience doesn’t know how to use the QR codes or they aren’t comfortable with it, they will never convert. So, it is better to stick to the conventional advertising methods than a QR code, which may confuse your target audience.

Bottom Line

These were the pros and cons of QR codes. While the technology works as a solid marketing tool to expand your reach to a wider audience worldwide, it comes with a few drawbacks.

Industry Terms: QR Codes

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This is the latest installment in The Official Merchant Services Blog’s Knowledge Base effort. We want to make the payment processing industry’s terms and buzzwords clear. We want to remove any and all confusion merchants might have about how the industry works. Host Merchant Services promises: we deliver personal service and clarity. So we’re going to take some time to explain how everything works. This ongoing series is where we define industry related terms and slowly build up a knowledge base and as we get more and more of these completed, we’ll collect them in our resource archive for quick and easy access.

Today I will define the term Quick Response Code, or QR Code. These codes are two dimensional barcodes, sometimes called print based hypertext links, that are designed to be decoded at a high speed. QR codes are increasingly used to identify the URL of a company’s web site so that mobile phone users can photograph the code and retrieve information about the organization. Some companies have even created billboard-sized QR codes for this purpose.

The versatility of the codes doesn’t stop there, a QR Code can also contain a phone number, an SMS message, a link to a photo, contact information or just plain alphanumeric text, and the scanning device will respond by opening up the correct application to handle the encoded data appropriately. With the technology of mobile phones constantly expanding, especially within mobile internet, QR Codes seem like the perfect solution to quickly and efficiently bring mobile phone users onto the mobile web.

QR Codes can also be used to facilitate mobile payments. Recently, Barclays Bank launched a mobile commerce QR code campaign right here in Delaware, called BarclayCard Mobile Wallet.  The program works in conjunction with a merchant’s credit card terminal,  a customer’s smartphone and the corresponding BarclayCard app.  When paying for something, the merchant prints out a special kind of QR code and hands it to the customer, who uses the BarclayCard mobile wallet application to scan the code and authorize the payment.  We went over this program in detail here a few weeks ago, when our own Steve Myers was the first to use the app at National 5&10.  Advancements in technology will lead to expansion and advancement in the uses of these codes, including new games or more advanced methods of mobile payment.

News for Mobile Payments

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Yesterday, The Official Merchant Services Blog defined the term Mobile Payment Processing for its readers. We bring this topic up frequently because it’s one of the hottest trends in credit card processing. Today we’re going to update our coverage of the topic. We have been framing almost every discussion of the topic around a set of studies done last year.

We’ve dug deeper on the topic to find new numbers — mostly from Internet Retailer and their very helpful industry statistics category.

The Mark of SORO

According to The State of Online Retailing Volume 1: Mobile Marketing, 91% of retailers have a mobile strategy in place. Produced annually in partnership between Shop.org and Forrester Research, The State of Retailing Online (SORO) study is the highly anticipated research that brings details of all aspects of eCommerce — from marketing, social media and mobile to KPIs, mobile and profitability — to the online retail community. For the first of two 2012 studies, Shop.org, RAMA and Forrester Research have embarked on a “deep dive” study of all things mobile marketing. Its findings are based on survey responses from 59 retailers, including merchants that operate stores, sell only on the web and manufacturers selling directly to consumers and details how retailers are implementing smartphone and tablet marketing into their sales mix.

According to the study, mobile generated 4.7% of total web sales for the retailers surveyed in 2011, with tablet users accounting for 3.2% and smartphone users accounting for 1.5%.

Essentially the data in the study indicates that e-commerce is slowly but steadily integrating more and more aspects of mobile commerce. The driving force spurring much of the conversion along appears to be coming from social media and e-mail campaigns. Mid-sized retailers — those with annual sales between $10 million and $100 million — say mobile e-mail optimization is their top tool for mobile marketing.

Also the study revealed the popularity of Quick Response Codes. The study says small and large retailers — those with annual sales of less than $10 million or more than $100 million, respectively — cite their use of quick-response codes or other barcode scanning tools as the top tool they use for mobile marketing, even though only 15% of smartphone users say they’ve ever scanned a code, the report says.

Burger King, Smart Phones and QR Codes

The information about QR Codes is significant when you factor in two of the latest breaking news stories in the mobile payments processing category.

First, Burger King just announced it has partnered with Qualcomm’s mobile commerce arm, Firethorn Mobile, for the BK Mobile Crown Card (BK MCC) initiative, which will start in 50 restaurants across Utah and surrounding areas. The platform will allow Android and iOS smartphone users to scan QR codes found on in-store counters and drive-thrus to make a payment via the BK MCC app, which is available on Google Play and the App Store. The transaction will then be processed through the user’s registered debit or credit card account.

Second, the NCR Corporation has developed a way to withdraw money from an ATM that uses your smart phone and a QR Code. According to this article by Digital Trends: “Developed by the NCR Corporation, the payments group within the company has created a way to withdraw cash from an ATM without having to pull an ATM card out of a purse or wallet.”

Here’s how the process works:

  1. A bank customer with an Android or iOS smartphone with a built-in camera approaches an ATM and launches the NCR application.
  2. After the app loads, the customer enters the four digit PIN number tied to their bank account on the smartphone touchscreen.
  3. When the pin is accepted, the app brings up all bank accounts related to the customer’s account.
  4. At this point, the customer can choose if they want to withdraw money from their checking or savings account.
  5. After picking an account, the customer chooses a dollar figure on the smartphone touchscreen. (In the NCR example, there are preset dollar figures in addition to a custom option to withdraw a specific amount of cash).
  6. Once the dollar figure is picked, the customer taps the scan button to launch the camera on the smartphone.
  7. Then the customer scans the QR code on the ATM screen with the camera application.
  8. The transaction is confirmed and cash is dispensed.
  9. The customer gets an electronic receipt on the smartphone screen as well.

According NCR management, the entire process takes about ten seconds to complete. In addition, someone waiting in line at an ATM could hypothetically run through all the first steps on the smartphone and would be ready to scan the QR code immediately when they reached the front of the line.