If You See A QR Code, They Blew It
Retailers trying to roll-their-own are about to have their Latest Failure, while ApplePay is ready to soar.
If may be a decade old tag line, but Apple’s supposed to be the company whose products “just work.” Just ask any iPhone owner, though, because that’s not the case anymore. Except for the newly released ApplePay, the fastest way to pay at the check out.
I can say the fastest because I tried ApplePay in the retail home of all things overcomplicated: Whole Foods. All I had to do was take my phone out, hold it above the device-reader, and place my thumb on the home button. In a matter of moments, it was finished. A graphic of my card appeared on my phone screen, and everything was paid for.
Unfortunately, this new future isn’t good enough for some retailers. You’d think that getting people checked out as fast as possible would be what they want. To remove everything in between their bank accounts and ours. To turn over customers rapidly, and speed up their cashiers. No, that’s not enough.
Working together to stop NFC is the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a consortium of retailers including Wal-Mart, Banana Republic, Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Old Navy, and most recently CVS and Rite-Aid. These retailers have now disabled NFC at their stores, pushing back against both ApplePay & Google’s similar Wallet technology. Why did they have to push back? In three days, Apple registered 1 million cards with ApplePay, a statistic that could make NFC the new standard.
So, what’s their big counter-offer to Apple & NFC? In the role of Dr. Frankenstein, these retailers are revivifying the monster known as QR code, under the new branding of an app called CurrentC.
QR codes, for those who live normal healthy lives, are those big pixely squares you see in around town, which ask you to scan them. They require you to download an app just for this purpose, and all they have encoded in them is a simple web-link.
You have to download an app because no smartphone maker pre-loads a QR reader. Because every smartphone maker knows better than to use this failed technology.
New technology has to be simple and ubiquitous. Which is what NFC, supported at the roots by Apple and Google, can be.
It’s hilarious how this is happening since we’ve already survived QR codes’ uselessness once. The last time I saw one was the 2011 holiday season, when Barney’s and Lady Gaga just slapped one on top of each of their promotional statues. Eager fans pulled out their phones, unlocked their screens, found (or more likely had to download) their QR code app, took a photo, and … were just sent to the basic webpage of the collaboration. A page they could have easily googled instead.
The MCX wants consumers to go through this hassle because it’s better for them. CurrentC will leave credit cards behind, as it only supports debit cards and individual stores’ gift-or-savings cards. This save merchants the 1–5% service charge inherent with all credit purchases, and allows stores to greater track and itemize your purchases, something that ApplePay does not allow.
Setting aside the horrible usability of a 3rd party app that isn’t baked into the operating system, CurrentC will fail because of Americans’ addictions to our credit cards. It might not be best for us, but people like their frequent flier miles. ApplePay is also vastly more secure than your credit card, mostly because it’s not based on iCloud.
It’s kind of amusing this is even happening. I don’t see Sony bringing back the MiniDisc, and what makes these retail chains think they’re any better?
Some free advice: when someone suggests your company use QR Codes, you have the right to judge them immediately. They have no idea what customers want to do. This is a technology that got shunned faster than Carrie on prom night. Anybody who suggests QR codes will jump at any new trend, without even asking how it works. They will lead you down as many paths to failure as you allow them to.
