Tesco's South Korean branch, called Home Plus, has found a way to encourage commuters to buy products through their mobile when waiting for their trains by building virtual aisles on the platforms.
Home Plus created enormous, rich images of food items and plastered them across the walls of train platforms -- laid out in the same way as they would be in the shop.
Every item has a corresponding QR barcode, and people waiting on the platform can check out the items on the huge billboard and scan the QR code of the relevant item using their mobile. This immediately adds it to their Home Plus shopping basket.
The idea was to make online shopping more visually appealing at a time when people are captive and bored: when they're waiting for a train. Deliveries of the goods can be arranged to arrive within hours of the order, meaning that in some cases they could arrive just as the commuter gets home.
This is part of a strategy by Home Plus to try and become the number one supermarket in South Korea, where a fifth of the 50-million-strong population has a smartphone.
The strategy proved successful. Home Plus online sales went up by 130 percent in three months, and the number of registered users went up by 76 percent. The retailer is also closing the gap on its main competitor, E-Mart.
The initiative was mentioned at the 360 Degree Consumer session at DLD Women in Munich this on Thursday.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
