French fashion retailer launches 10,000 boutiques overnight

No, these are not physical stores. French clothing retailer Comptoir des Cotonniers (CDC) does not have the resources of a Walmart, but has relied on technological innovation to create virtual stores all over Paris, Toulouse and Marseille. The products will be displayed in the form of posters on Bus shelters, Cars, Café tables, magazines, and virtually anywhere where they can stick them. These posters have a QR code, which can be scanned by smartphones, and goods be purchased within a few seconds, on the move.  

Retail industry is emerging as a hotspot for mobile innovation, especially in the field of mobile payments. Retailers are using technologies such as QR code, Beacon and NFC to capitalize on impulse buying habits of shoppers. According to Digital Journal, More than 139.5 million Europeans now regularly shop via mobile phone, with 42 per cent of these saying that they regularly buy 'on impulse', compared to just 25 per cent of non-mobile adopters. Clothing tops mobile shoppers’ list, which makes this move from CDC a no-brainer.

So how does these QR codes work?

The QR codes store product information in an encoded format, which can only be read by designated applications. Customers would have to download CDC app from app store and register their details (such as payment, billing address, and shipping address etc.) with the app, only once.   After this, they can scan any of these QR codes, confirm the amount they are paying, and complete the purchase process in couple of screen taps.

Compared to traditional online shopping where customers have to painstakingly fill up numerous details, and more often than not they end up abandoning their shopping cart, mobile payment technologies (like QR code) are enabling retailers to offer a vastly superior customer experience. 

But, will this work?

Personally, I prefer to try out clothes in stores before buying, and would not be comfortable buying them on the move, which I believe might be true for majority of customers. If it were something like a book, I would not shy away from taking out my smartphone and scanning that QR code, but for  clothes, maybe not. It will be interesting to see how it plays out for Comptoir des Cotonniers.