An Exploratory Study of QR Code Utilization for Retailers' Multichannel Strategy

Abstract

: With advances in QR code, mobile is becoming one of important channels in the fashion retail industries. This study attempts to understand the importance of QR code utilization in creating multi-channel business model. Study objectives are to classify types of multi-channel retailing by QR code utilization and to explore the role of QR code technology in strategic marketing elements for types of multichannel retailer. As an exploratory approach, a total of 78 news articles regarding QR code issues were reviewed and analyzed by focusing on 48retailers seleted in this study. The results found seven dimensions of QR code marketing strategies: abundant product information, additional information contents, transaction accessibility, connectedness to channels, location based service, loyalty program and multimedia advertising. Based a combination of channels and level of mobile apps' activation, multichannel retailers utilizing QR code technology were classified into four types; bricks-click-active mobile model, bricks-click-inactive mobile model, bricks-click model, and clickactive mobile model. There were differences of using QR code marketing strategies among multichannel models. According to results, for bricks-and-mortar retailers, QR code was critical to integrate shopping experience with merchandise or sales promotions across channels. In addition, for non-store retailers, the QR code utilization was successful in expanding mobile channels, which can promote retail sales by a two-way interaction with customers via the mobile apps.