7 Surprising Ways QR Codes Can Boost Fashion Cross-Sells
I’ve always enjoyed visiting physical fashion stores. It feels like an experience that online shopping won’t fully replace.
And when I buy clothes, I admit I don’t always know what goes well together or what outfits I could create.
Sure, you can look at in-store mannequins or social media, but I would often feel like I wanted more inspiration or guidance when I visited a store.
During one of my recent visits, while looking at a piece of clothing, I started wishing I could see outfit ideas related to the garment. Then I thought — what if you could use something as simple as a QR code to seek outfit inspiration right there in the store?
I started to see this idea as a chance for clothing retailers to boost sales by sharing content in-store in a new way.
Building a Better Experience in Fashion Stores
Going back to last year, as founder of Gomore, I made it my mission to improve in-store fashion shopping significantly.
After learning from retailers about their engagement and sales issues, I built a novel solution involving gamification.
This approach focused on boosting in-store engagement by rewarding fashion store visitors. Beacons would detect the presence of a visitor and prompt them to complete challenges to earn points and rewards. The idea was to increase in-store dwell time and loyalty to a brand.
I still believe in gamification and will address it more in the future. But, at the end of 2023, I pivoted to what I alluded to in the introduction. It has more promise to solve the problems of fashion stores and their customers.
A New Idea
Many customers follow retailers and brands on social media, taking in different products and styles. This may encourage visits to stores or online purchases, but I formed the belief that increased sales could be sparked by placing content in an in-store context.
I thought of delivering curated looks or outfits via strategically placed QR codes in-store. I will share the many advantages in this article.
The key point is to deliver content at the right time — when customers consider purchasing.
Social media is great, but there needs to be a timing connection between when you see content and when you’re making a purchase in a physical store.
Once the idea developed, I surveyed fashion shoppers and their shopping habits. The results were promising.
Surveying How People Shop in Fashion Stores
Most people we surveyed in Sydney said they felt neutral in confidence when choosing outfits on their own. Furthermore, 59% said that their purchases were either somewhat or significantly influenced by in-store style inspiration from displays showing videos, mannequins, imagery or rack pairings.
These figures suggest that retail clothing store customers seek outfit inspiration in-store to guide and feel confident about their purchases.
When presented with the idea of having the option to scan QR codes in-store to reveal outfit inspiration and paired products, 48.5% said they were either somewhat likely or very likely to use such a solution. A further 15% said they were undecided about the idea.
Of the surveyed shoppers, 81% wanted the ability to “scan QR codes on garments to view related outfit inspiration”.
Big Retail Fashion Brands Already Use QR Codes
QR codes are not new. They are an established technology, and consumers already use them frequently. Retailers can take advantage of the fact that customers already scan QR codes in stores.
Brands like Zara and Nike use QR codes on all their product tags. These brands have identified the need to bridge the gap between online and offline shopping.
Both Zara and Nike link customers to a product’s landing page. Taking this further could promote outfit discovery and cross-sells.
In this article, I will share how QR content showing outfit inspiration and paired products could increase sales in fashion stores.
Now, let’s dive into how a QR content strategy could improve sales for your store. I will take you through how QR content can increase cross-sells, help you better understand customers and adapt to fashion trends in a competitive market.
7 Surprising Ways QR Codes Can Unlock Increased Fashion Sales
- Boost Sales through Cross-Selling
- QR Codes: Enhance Fashion Retail Engagement
- Adapt QR Content to Fashion Trends
- Gain In-Store Insights with Real-Time Analytics
- Influence In-Store Purchases beyond Social Media
- Bridge Online-Offline Shopping
- Sustainable Style Made Easy
1. Boost Sales through Cross-Selling
Cross-selling is a central strategy for many fashion stores.
But, doing cross-selling well can be tough, and stores often struggle.
The skill and drive of your store staff can affect how well they cross-sell.
Showing outfits with QR codes can help sell more, making the average purchase bigger.
How does this work?
Showing multiple outfits in a feed, along with the associated products that comprise each outfit, can increase the likelihood of multiple purchases. QR codes can help increase sales by making customers more confident buying items that go well together.
Customers might even be motivated to purchase complementary products linked to multiple outfit looks.
2. QR Codes: Enhance Fashion Retail Engagement
Fashion stores use various strategies to engage customers in-store. These strategies can be moderately effective but, in many ways, call for improvement.
How well a store engages customers often determines if they buy something or leave.
You might use mannequins to inspire customers and encourage more sales. But there’s a limit to how many mannequins you can put in your store.
Changing mannequin outfits takes a lot of time, and the ability to capture data about how customers interact with them is almost nonexistent.
In-store imagery or video displays can be a promising way to deliver content in-store, but also have limitations. It can be hard to capture data around video displays, and often, they are very costly, requiring regular investment in video content and maintenance. Printed imagery has similar problems despite being cheaper to implement.
Fashion stores need help to show customers how to mix and match clothes and find items that go well together. This difficulty leads to fewer cross-sells.
Overall, showing customers content when they’re about to buy can better influence their choices.
3. Adapt QR Content to Fashion Trends
Fashion trends change quickly and can significantly drive fashion stores’ strategy.
It can make or break a store, and failing to adapt to changing consumer tastes or styles can lead to irrelevancy.
Changing in-store fashion displays quickly to match new trends can take time and effort.
Due to fast-changing fashion trends, stores must quickly provide new outfit ideas and recommend matching items. This means being able to make changes to QR content promptly is vital.
4. Gain In-Store Insights with Real-Time Analytics
Obtaining in-store data analytics to understand customer behaviour is essential for fashion stores.
Current ways to gather data in stores have their limits.
A QR-driven approach to delivering content in-store can gather actionable information, unlocking new insights into customer interests and purchase intentions.
Metrics to track include:
- Time considering products
- Outfit looks considered
- Number of scans
- Most popular in-store product categories
- Average price of products viewed
To measure the return on investment of QR content, determine the relative interest in different products in-store and correlate it with sales data.
QR content helps you learn more about what your customers like and dislike in your store. For example, which products are getting the most attention in different parts of your store, and how can that placement be optimised.
Tracking QR content’s performance can increase your store’s ability to influence customers and increase basket sizes.
5. Beyond Social Media: Influencing In-Store Purchases
As mentioned in the introduction, the context in which customers see content matters.
Social media is decisive for fashion stores, but its influence on immediate offline sales and cross-sells is diminished due to content not being consumed in-store.
Offering the ability to place relevant outfit-based content at the customer’s fingertips while in-store and considering a purchase boosts that content’s sales impact.
Putting QR codes on or near clothes can easily help fashion retailers share social media content in their stores.
As a fashion retailer, you can use social media-type content, delivering it via QR codes.
Striking a balance with your QR content involves selecting influencer, retailer and user-generated content that can maximise the impact.
QR content allows one to create a relatable and personal experience that could drive sales and cross-sells.
6. Bridge Online-Offline Shopping
Recent years have seen much discussion about omnichannel strategies. With proven benefits, most stores with both a physical and online presence are adopting this approach.
The current in-store retail clothing store experience must be more connected to the online experience. Many opportunities exist to improve this, including delivering in-store outfit inspiration via QR codes.
QR codes could make it easier for customers to switch between shopping in-store and online.
Stores can put QR codes in key locations around a store. This is great for customers who use their phones as they look at clothes and find new outfit ideas. When scanning a garment’s QR code, they can see suggested outfits immediately, increasing cross-sell potential.
QR-based in-store content inspiration can offer an online experience that powerfully complements your store’s experience, increasing the likelihood of purchases.
7. Sustainable Style Made Easy
More people now understand how fast fashion and related practices can be harmful. If you sell clothes, consider being more eco-friendly. Otherwise, you might sell less in the future.
How are you embracing sustainable practices?
Clothes that are good for the environment and are ethical can help our planet. And this is particularly important to younger generations.
Being sustainable and informing customers of this is a must-have for fashion retailers, not just a nice extra.
A recent industry report states that business models must change. It says:
“87% of fashion executives think sustainability regulations will impact their businesses in 2024”. — State of Fashion 2024 report, McKinsey and Company
Greenwashing in marketing will get more attention and be a major focus for consumers and regulators.
Because of these changes, stores should make sure information about their products’ sustainability is visible.
QR codes can help you sell more by telling customers where the clothes come from, what they’re made of, and if they’re made well. This allows customers to make informed purchases in your store.
Now is the time to make such changes.
Wrapping up
QR content is a fresh and effective way to increase sales in fashion stores. This approach helps retailers and customers, making shopping experiences more profitable and engaging.
Cross-selling is critical in fashion stores, and QR content is a great way to boost this. QR content keeps customers interested in trying new clothes in-store and staying up-to-date with fashion trends.
Customers want new ways to get inspired when shopping for clothes. Our Gomore survey shows that people want QR codes for outfit suggestions and matching products in stores.
As the founder of Gomore, I believe that QR content can greatly improve fashion retail strategies. And it’s not just about selling more; it’s also about understanding customers better. This approach has the potential for stronger loyalty, repeat business, impactful reward programs, and happier customers in your store.
See what QR-Powered fashion can do for you
Curious about adding QR content to your fashion store? At Gomore, we’re all about enhancing your customer’s shopping experience in a way that feels natural to your brand. Our platform easily fits into your existing setup and is tailored to your store’s unique vibe.
Discover how we can help engage your customers, keep up with fashion trends, and lift your retail space.
Interested? Let’s chat and explore possibilities with a demo. We’re keen to help you enhance the way your store connects with customers.
Find out more at gomore.com.au.
