How are QR Code Ordering Systems used?

Quick Response codes, also known as QR Codes, are designed to make information quickly and easily accessible to the users. They are basically small 2D barcodes. In order to access the information of a QR Code, a user needs to scan the QR Code with the camera on his / her smart phone.

The QR Code Ordering Systems are intended to be used to drive user engagement and increase a company / business’s interactions with their potential customers. The most common way using a QR Code is to bring a user to the business / company's website or a landing page. Using a QR code makes the entire process of looking up a company’s website more fun and a whole lot easier. The traditional method of manually typing in a URL or looking it up via online search engines and then navigating to a website is pretty boring and outdated. A QR Code is thus a great way of bringing users to a sign-up page of a specific company. Using a unique QR Code with one’s company’s URL can instantly show results and increase the flow of organic traffic to a web page.

With the passage of time and development of new improved technologies, QR Code Ordering Systems are now being used for various other purposes also. For example, QR Code Ordering Systems are also being used for communication. In place of sending promotional ads via emails & texts, encoding QR Code with the same promotional advertisements and using the QR Code Ordering Systems will result better engagement and communication. This method can also be used by printing the QR Code Ordering Systems on advertisements – both in print and digital media for a better reach. Many companies are providing the QR Code Ordering Systems on product packages and using the above mentioned method to provide access to special promotional offers, access to warranty information or user guides and other such marketing gimmicks. A few companies have even gone to the extent of using the QR Code Ordering Systems to provide their customers access to their customer services.

Redirecting users to specific an app downloading page / site is another popular use of QR Code Ordering Systems. Even big shots like Instagram and Facebook have been using this unique method for brand promotion as well as for increasing their app’s reach. It actually is a good idea to use QR Code Ordering Systems to let a user install an app as it makes things easier. Instead of using the traditional way of searching the entire App Store to find one app, scanning a simple QR Code will start the download. This makes the entire process of downloading an app all the more easy.

Nowadays providing discounts and promotions have become the most popular and most widely served purpose by the QR codes. The idea is very simple, instaed of using traditional coupons / vouchers, a QR Code is used to do the same thing. This method helps in saving the cost of printing numerous coupons / vouchers as one QR Code can do the job.

QR Code Ordering Systems are also a very beneficial way of bringing positive online feedbacks and reviews in case of in-store shopping. In fact, according to many latest researches, as much as 95% of customers nowadays prefer to read reviews before making any online purchases. Allowing customers to easily access and go through all the reviews of an item in-store, can actually encourage them to buy the item. This saves a lot of the customer’s time and energy, instead of having them to go back home, do their research, reach at a conclusion first and then decide on the purchase accordingly.

Let us now consider few of the Pros and Cons of the QR Codes:

The pros

They can be helpful in reducing printed marketing costs:

In today’s digital world space comes with a price tag. No matter what you are printing or how small / big, simple / complex your printing is, it comes at a pre fixed price rate. The amount of investment required in printing marketing materials like brochures, catalogs, advertisement materials and signage can be very costly. This is where the QR Code Ordering Systems can come handy. They are a simple and cost effective way to direct customers to a specific page / audience. The QR Code Ordering Systems can also store more information about a product, service or promotion within a much smaller space than a traditional printed a material. This helps in ensuring you don't end up wasting expensive print space on printing unnecessary details. The QR Code– can take a user directly to an online promotion site, can be encoded with product images, pricing and other such product details, without actually taking up too much of space.

Helps in tracking audience response:

Tracking a QR Code is very easy. One can assign and track any number of QR Code Ordering Systems based on their specific objectives. In fact, in today’s date there are a plethora of online tools and apps that can help in tracking QR Code Ordering Systems for absolutely free of cost.

Following are few benefits of QR Code Ordering Systems that must be taken into consideration from a marketing point of view:

• The QR Code Ordering Systems are very easy to be generated.
• The QR Code Ordering Systems can be easily customized to fit into any amount of promotional space.
• The QR Code Ordering Systems are very cost-effective and versatile.
• The QR Code Ordering Systems can easily grab the audience’s attention and hence are very helpful in increasing engagement.

They're conducive to smartphones:

On an average, every individual spends about five hours a day on their smartphones. As much as just a meagre 5% of those 5 hours per day, is spent on taking calls on the phone. The usage is thus mostly random searches or social media interactions / engagements. The QR Code Ordering Systems can thus be very effective to draw the attention and engage such tech savvy mobile users, who have become accustomed to using their smartphones for getting fast and instant solutions for every problem.

The ease provided by the QR Code Ordering Systems is the key. Simply by scanning the image of the QR Code Ordering Systems with their mobile devices, the users can instantly get access to a lot of information and find out more about a company / business. The QR Code Ordering Systems can provide them the details of specific products and services, without having them to make the extra effort of checking out the company’s on social media handles and reviews therein. In fact, the customers don’t even need remember your business / company name.

The cons

Might not necessarily be as easy to use as they sound:

The QR Code Ordering Systems were originally designed to be used as shortcuts. Whenever a customer scans / clicks the photo of any QR code on their mobile device, they are basically taken directly to the relevant website / landing page for letting them have more detailed information about the company. Using QR Code Ordering Systems in real life might not be as easy as it might seem on paper. There are a huge lot of technical hurdles that businesses must ensure to have accounted for before the QR Code can be used to utilize all its inherent benefits.

There are many such problems which the QR Code users often face. For example, many times a user has to already keep a necessary app downloaded in order to be able to scan and use a QR Code. Nowadays there are various different types of mobile devices which are supported on various different kind of platforms like, Android, Microsoft and Apple, etc. It can thus be very tough for business owners to understand which apps the customers should download to be able to properly use the QR Code Ordering Systems on their phones according to their phone’s operating system.

There must be a proper reason and design behind the implementation of the QR Code:

The QR Code Ordering Systems are supposed to be used to provide the users with special rewards or benefits to the users. Things that one cannot find on social media sites or other online shopping platforms. This may involve an additional expense on marketing. The businesses must thus be ready with proper advertisement campaigns and promotional offer strategies if they are planning to use the QR Code systems to reap maximum benefits out of it.

A two way interacting system can be more beneficial at times:

With the passage of time the social media and the related technologies are evolving rapidly. Now there may be methods other than QR Code systems which might be beneficial for some businesses. Some business owners might need to communicate with their customers at all times but the usage of QR Code Ordering Systems reduces the chance of communication to a great extent. The communication can be ensured by allowing the customers to interact directly with the seller via a short URL, native apps or social media sites. A two way communication medium (like social media) can also give the businesses an extra benefit of getting to connect with the customers at personal level. Connections and interactions like these can potentially increase the exposure of the company through successive social media engagement.

The QR Code Ordering Systems can provided a way to do more without spending much effort and time but in today’s day the mobile technology has also advanced to a huge extent. The advancement of technology has now reduced the overall cost effectiveness of using the QR Code tactic. It is no longer as effective as it once used to be. Even though QR Code Ordering Systems are still prevalent, they don’t really have a place in the world of small businesses. The marketing techniques and the selling tactic of the competitors must be understood first. Then proper calculations must be done to understand the cost-effectiveness of the QR Code method for your business module. It is wrong to be assuming that a QR Code system will deliver the optimal outcome invariably in all the cases.