To no surprise of anyone in the world, the use of mobile devices will keep increasing, and to that end, advertisers are looking to become fully vested in that growth. It’s reported that mobile advertising is growing six times faster than conventional desktop advertising. As we wrote in a past article, it’s becoming a point and click society as far as digital linking is concerned and nothing allows consumers to point their mobile device, click and be taken to digital content better than QR codes.
QR Codes and Mobile Marketing
Our friends at Mobile Commerce News, sums up the current consumer marketing possibilities in their article, “The Future of Mobile Commerce.”
[pullquote]“Nearly everyone born between the late 1980s and early 2000s has a mobile device of some kind, with 72% of these devices being smartphones. In the U.S., three-quarters of the population knows how to use a smartphone and these people frequently use their devices on a daily basis.”[/pullquote]
[pullquote]“These devices are dictating how people connect to one another and how they interact with the world around them. They are also having an effect on how people interact with businesses. Companies that do not have a mobile presence are finding it more difficult to capture the attention of mobile consumers.”[/pullquote]
We’ve already seen examples of “Pop-Up Stores,” using QR codes to replace stock, with an all digital transaction on one’s mobile device.
And the same firm has now opened a virtual store in the U.K., using QR codes for transactions.
You will soon find that fast food restaurants will soon have a QR code menu before you enter the line for the counter, so you can order, customize and pay so by the time you get to the counter, your meal will be ready.
There are restaurants that currently have QR code ordering for table service.
Mobile Shopping From Catalogs
Two of uQR.me’s clients are a big sportswear and equipment catalog, and a home center catalog that use QR codes to order right from a mobile device. Decathlon and Sodimac use QR codes in their print catalogs to make placing items into a shopping cart and fulfilling orders on a mobile device easier, and the results have seen increased sales. Point and click is the preferred method of consumers.
It’s the figures themselves that show the incredible expansion of mobile device use, and, for the nay-sayers, the overwhelming use of QR codes in digital transactions, over all other mobile payment apps.
The mobile payments field is growing rapidly, and accelerating its pace with every quarter. A recent Gartner report indicates a 44% increase in worldwide mobile payments in just one year to be at a robust $235.4 billion at the end of 2013.
[pullquote]“The popularity of mobile is underscored in a Nielsen study that indicates strong adoption across the board – 40% of mobile wallet users say mobile is now their primary mode of payment. Men (47%) and women (53%) have adopted these new digital services almost equally, as have consumers across various income levels, with the highest usage by those making less than $50,000 (32%), and more than $100,000 (29%). The majority of users are either aged 18-34 (55%) or 35-54 (35%).”[/pullquote]
[pullquote]“We expect global mobile transaction volume and value to average 35 percent annual growth between 2012 and 2017,”[/pullquote] said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. [pullquote]“And we are forecasting a market worth $721 billion with more than 450 million users by 2017.”[/pullquote]
The most surprising take away from the report was on QR codes: 45% of the consumers surveyed prefer using QR codes over any other digital payment method.
[pullquote]“Near Field Communications’ (NFC) transaction value has been reduced by more 40 percent throughout the forecast period due to disappointing adoption of NFC technology in all markets in 2012, and the fact that some high-profile services, such as Google Wallet and Isis, are struggling to gain traction. Gartner forecasts that NFC will account for only about 2 percent of total transaction value in 2013 and 5 percent of the total transaction value in 2017, although growth is expected to increase somewhat from 2016 when the penetration of NFC mobile phones and contactless readers increases.”[/pullquote]
Are QR Codes Part of This?
Of course! In fact, QR codes are a major part of this growth. The shame is, with uninformed people writing articles about the death of QR codes and how they fail, many businesses might start too late with their mobile payments and ordering inception, and in business, there are only the quick, and the dead. There is also a rise in the use of QR codes on tombstones for people who are dead. Isn’t that ironic?
