Use QR codes to integrate promotions in your mobile app
Today’s consumers expect you to keep delivering an outstanding experience regardless of channel or technology. With nearly 3 billion smartphones in use expected in 2018, mobile technologies are becoming the main area of development in which your promotions and offers compete for customers’ interest and for conversions.
In this post, we’re going to show you how QR codes can sync your online and offline channels to create consistent promotion flow. Keep in mind that omnichannel strategy aims at providing a cross-channel experience focused on the brand, not on a particular channel. With QR codes, channels become a transparent background for your promotions.
Why your promotions need QR codes
QR codes in a mobile app help you to meet the expectations of modern consumers. Even if more than 90% of consumers use coupons, almost 40% will do this via their mobile devices. QR codes are a perfect way to extend the reach of your promotions by making them available on mobile and in the offline world.
You can distribute promo codes online, and your customers can redeem them offline at the storefront.
- This could be a gift card for mobile devices, which customers can redeem many times by simply showing the store staff the code on their phone.
- It could be a flash-sale with a QR code sent to customers’ smartphones when they are near your store.
- It could be an exclusive discount sent in a personalized email. There is no need for your customer to remember a code or connect to the Internet. The in-store staff will be able to scan and validate the QR code.
How to use QR codes for offline redemptions
We’re going to present the workflow by using a single app, Voucherify. Our aim is to deliver unique promo codes to new subscribers to our newsletter and enable their use for offline redemptions in brick-and-mortar stores.
Voucherify provides a web app where you can create, manage and distribute promo codes in many formats, including QR codes. Voucherify also provides a free mobile app for your store staff, who scan the promo QR codes and validate them before applying the discount.
Let’s look at the workflow step by step.
Firstly, a customer visits a landing page and subscribes to a newsletter.
In response, they receive an automatic email with a promo code.
The personalized email contains a discount code in plain text and in QR code format. The mailing is triggered automatically by the submission of the completed subscription form.
Finally, the customer can visit a brick-and-mortar store and redeem the code. Basically, the QR code on any device is shown to the staff at the location. The QR code is scanned and validated using a mobile app. If the Voucherify system sends a positive response, redemption is completed and the order is discounted.
All redemptions made using the mobile app are stored in the Voucherify dashboard. Tracking never stops and Voucherify constantly gathers data from online and offline redemptions.
In the picture, you can see how mobile and web apps interact while redeeming the code.
- A customer visits your store and shows his/her code.
- A shop assistant opens the app (connected to the Internet) and either scans or types in the coupon code.
- The app requests the promo code verification from the Voucherify server.
- In response, the app sends the code data (valid/invalid status, assigned discount)
- The shop assistant applies the discount to order in your POS system.
That’s it!
Summary
Promotions featuring QR codes enable you to sync them with mobile technologies. For example, you can combine incentives with geo-targeting which exceed customer expectations. Thanks to QR codes delivered straight to a mobile device, your customers can use the code right away when still in a spending mood.
Originally published at www.voucherify.io.
