Tag: qr code shopping

The new “digital fragrance” is being sold exclusively through barcode scans.

The marketers of the new Bond No. 9 fragrance have taken a mobile commerce tack to draw attention to itself in a marketplace that is flooded with products, by using QR codes in a unique way.

The perfume is being launched at the end of June and will be sold only online, through a page accessed by barcode.

The scent is being launched for $250 per bottle and has announced that it will not be making its fragrance available to brick and mortar retailers for the launch. Its sales will occur online through a website that can be accessed by way of scanned QR codes. This is a direct nod to the popularity of smartphones and tablets and the growing number of people who are using mobile commerce.

The QR codes will be available in a number of different locations for consumers to scan.

The question is whether or not consumers will actually be on board with the idea of using QR codes to purchase a product that they have not been able to try out for themselves. As a highly personal product, many consumers prefer to try fragrances before they buy and will typically only shop online when they have already used a product and know that they like it.

That said, Laurice Rahme, the owner and founder of the Bond No.9 brand, feels that there is enough motivation to generate a tremendous success. Rahme said that “The fragrance business is always doing the same thing and the same thing and the same thing. We wanted to really capture what is going on in the world. Everybody is online. Everybody is mobile. So we have to do a fragrance for that world. It’s a different world.”

Rahme explained that what she loves about the QR codes on the packaging is that the industry is always discussing the challenges of training and retraining sales people, but this technique allows the bottle to communicate directly with the consumer. She believes that this takes the product beyond department store distribution.

The QR codes definitely generate a unique mobile commerce fragrance experience, but it has yet to be seen whether this “universal” unisex fragrance will take off at that price and over this channel.

The largest American in-mall digital network has now added both the barcodes and the contactless tech.

Adspace Digital Mall Network has just announced that it is installing both QR codes and NFC technology into 140 malls across the United States, within their network, in order to improve the shopping experience.

This new initiative will use the mTAG platform from Blue Bite on the mall Smart Screen.

The new feature will allow clients to view advertising with QR codes that they can scan with their smartphones, or they can tap the screen to activate the NFC technology. The mTAG placard that is located on the side of the Smart Screen units provide a considerably higher level of interactivity for shoppers.

The QR codes and NFC tags will become available to advertisers in the malls as of April 15, 2013.

As of yet, it is has not been announced whether there are plans to expand this QR codes program to the rest of the 206 total malls in the network if it proves to be successful. It is also not yet known whether the company intends to use data collected from the scans, such as the number of successful scans and which campaigns prove to be the most successful in terms of the activity that they generate. It has also not yet been announced whether the use of the barcodes will be compared with that of the NFC technology.

The QR codes and NFC tags are designed to facilitate a number of different types of interactions between brands and consumers. The mTAG experience is meant to be a rich one that offers content such as app, ebook, mp3 and movie trailer downloads, as well as web based games and applications, social media integration, coupons and other promotions, maps, and more.

With the scan of the QR codes or the use of the other mobile features on the Smart Screens, this information can be downloaded or viewed directly on the user’s own device. The barcodes were included because while NFC technology is considered to be the ideal choice for this interactive mall feature, there are still only a small percentage of device owners whose smartphones are enabled with those chips.