You
know those busy days when you wake up in the morning stressed about how you’re
going to get everything done that day?
How are you going to make it through the day of work and then run all of
your errands? And then you
remember that you need to go grocery shopping because you have nothing to eat
for dinner when you get home. And
then on top of everything you get stuck waiting for the bus or the subway and
feel like you’re wasting time.
Well, what if you could use that waiting time to get some of your
errands done? What if you could
use the time you waste waiting for your ride to work to do your grocery
shopping? Well, that’s precisely
what Tesco Home Plus made possible for consumers in Korea.
In
2011, Tesco Home Plus was one of Korea’s top supermarket chains and was looking
to increase sales and market share without building new stores. Tesco realized that consumers are busy
people and generally don’t really enjoy grocery shopping. They also realized that consumers were
constantly on the go and used smartphones. So, they decided to build virtual stores.
Tesco
installed life-size images of their stocked grocery store shelves and aisles
onto the walls of subway stations.
Products ranged from packaged goods to produce and meats, and each item
was labeled with a QR code.
Shoppers could scan a code of a product they wanted to buy and the
product would be placed into their virtual cart. When they were finished shopping, customers checked out and
paid through their phones, and their purchases would be delivered to their
homes.
With
this innovative campaign, Tesco sought to reach busy professionals that didn’t
have a lot of time to make a trip to the grocery store and spend time
shopping. They also targeted city
dwellers that may not have cars to transport their groceries, and thus could
benefit from grocery deliveries.
Although
Tesco had already offered grocery delivery services prior to this campaign,
their innovative strategy was extremely successful and helped to significantly
increase sales. As a result of the
campaign, over 10,000 consumers accessed Tesco’s online store through their
smartphones and there was a 76% increase in registered members. In addition, their online sales
increased by 130%. While Tesco
still has yet to beat out their main competitor, E-mart, in traditional sales,
they now hold the number one spot in online sales.
Overall,
Tesco’s idea for virtual grocery stores was genius. I think that it’s such a great idea to try and capitalize on
the time that consumers are literally just standing there doing nothing at the
metro station. I’ve personally
spent quite a bit of time at bus and subway stops and if I had seen a virtual
store like this or any kind of QR code that I could scan, I definitely would’ve
done so just because I had nothing better to do. The innovative placement would’ve captured my attention even
if I wasn’t generally interested in the product. It’s also a great idea because it reaches the consumers
where they are. People in the city
are generally busy and don’t have a lot of time to waste, they take the subway,
and they carry smartphones.
Last
semester, in one of my classes I created a campaign for a grocery delivery
service in the New York City area.
Although our information was based on the U.S., the research that my
partner and I did also helps support the validity of Tesco’s campaign
idea. We conducted a survey and
found that the majority of respondents had negative views about grocery
shopping. Most of them view
grocery shopping as very time consuming and are frustrated with the usual long
lines and travel time to and from the store. We also discovered that the majority of respondents would be
willing to try online grocery shopping.
The primary competitors for online grocery services are actually
traditional grocery stores, rather than other online services. By creating virtual grocery stores in
metro stations, Tesco was able to provide an easy and fun way for consumers to
try online grocery shopping as well as eliminate the complaints that they had
about traditional shopping.
Genius.
As
Geek Author Jennifer Bergen points out, really the only negative aspect of this
campaign was that it was a virtual experience. Consumers couldn’t pick up products to read the labels or
specifically select their own produce.
This could be a turn-off for some consumers, but I think the issue could
be pretty easily resolved with an upgrade to the smartphone program that was
being used. Tesco would just need
to provide more information—like nutrition facts—about the products either once
they’ve been scanned or on the displays themselves. They could also add a feature to allow customers to
customize their produce selections based on different characteristics that they
prefer.
With
this creative campaign, Tesco really made a statement and an advancement in a
generally boring industry. They
also demonstrated the power of mobile marketing and how to effectively use
it. It’s crazy to think how far
cell phones have come. Just a few
years ago, it was amazing that you could even take a picture on your
phone. Today, you can find a
recipe on Pinterest, read reviews and tips on it, purchase all of the
ingredients and have them delivered to your home, and then create a Facebook
event and invite all of your friends to a dinner party, all on your phone on
your way to work. So crazy. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Original article:
Korea’s Tesco reinvents grocery shopping with QR-code “stores” by Jennifer Bergen
