QR code changes Subway station to Supermarket.
In 2011, Samsung-Tesco Homeplus launched a virtual store which changed citizen’s boring experience at the subway platform.
“What do you usually do when you wait for the subway?”
Waiting for the subway is the most boring and useless time. Regarding this, Homeplus, the second biggest supermarket company in South Korea, launched a virtual supermarket at a subway platform.
To make the virtual store, the company attached sheets with photos and QR-codes of products to the columns and platform screen doors. When passengers scanned QR-code, Homeplus smartphone application ran automatically, and people could buy through the online. If the people had bought when they were going to work, they could have got the product in the evening [1]. With the success of the store, Homeplus became NO.1 online market company in South Korea [2].
Although its success was based on the country’s mobile connectivity and fast logistics system [3], the strength of the project is the technology and mechanism are cheap and clear to apply. We can utilize this to transform the boring platform into a place which provides a variety of virtual contents in daily life. Moreover, regarding a business model, the project is quite sustainable, because the private business creates public interest like advertisement fees and the improvement in the quality of citizen’s life.
Resources
[1] Strother, J. (2011 Oct. 21). Shopping by phone at South Korea’s virtual grocery. BBC PRI’s the World, Retrieved on September 9, 2019, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-15341910
[2] Cheil UK. (2016 Feb. 5). Homeplus ‘Subway Virtual Store’, Retrieved on September 9, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEwvh_8MQb8
[3] “Tesco builds virtual shops for Korean commuters”. (2011 Jun. 27). The Telegraph, Retrieved on September 9, 2019, from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/8601147/Tesco-builds-virtual-shops-for-Korean-commuters.html
