There is a demographic that is broadly using these barcodes and marketers should target accordingly.

Though QR codes got to a slow start in terms of their use by consumers, despite their broad implementation by brands and marketers, the Millennial demographic has now embraced them and is using them quite regularly.

The key is to make sure that when you market with QR codes, you focus on the right age group.

Millennials are, after all, the demographic among whom the smartphone has the greatest penetration. They are tech savvy and use their mobile devices for many of their everyday tasks and communications. They are also used to the regular introduction of new features, technologies, and uses for their gadgets. Therefore, it is only natural for them to easily accept the use of barcode scanning, and the app download and snap the image to scan the code.

At the latest Business Insider’s Mobile Advertising Conference, Jason Wagenheim, the publisher and vice president of Teen Vogue, told those in attendance that 42 percent of the readership of the magazine is currently scanning the QR codes printed among its pages.

Teen QR code scans have increased by 133 percent in a period of 18 months.

Similarly, the Mr. Youth managing partner and senior vice president of account and strategy service, Melissa Lentz, has agreed with Wagenheim’s statement that QR code scanning is important and growing. Her statistics show that 46 percent of Millennials use product bar code scanning as an factor in their shopping experience, as they search for better deals on the internet.

This makes it not only very important for marketers whose target audience is Millennials to begin the use of QR codes as a part of their overall marketing strategies, and to make sure that those barcodes actually work. If they cannot be scanned properly, then it will taint the entire opinion of the Millennial.

Mobile commerce changing very quickly. Where it would have been exceptionally challenging and involved to accomplish a simple goal a couple of years ago, the same task can be completed in hardly a blink nowadays. With an evolution at this speed, it is important to keep on top of the latest consumer behaviors and trends, to help to make sure that the right moves are being made and that they align with the current and likely future direction of m-commerce.

Moreover, Millennials have certain expectations about the redirection from their scans. They don’t simply want to be brought to the standard mobile website homepage. Instead, they want to gain access to content that is exclusive and easy to use.

Reaching consumers once they’ve walked into your shop.

If you’re expecting your mobile commerce strategy to simply be a version of your e-commerce efforts, only suited to a smaller screen, then you will be missing the majority of the opportunities that are available to you through this channel.

The smaller screen is just the jumping off point, since it makes sure that your content is accessible.

In the United States – which isn’t even the mobile commerce world leader – there is double digit growth being seen in this sphere. It has been predicted that by 2015, the marketplace will be worth almost $300 billion. So it is important for retailers and merchants of all kind to make sure that they are making proper use of this channel, and aren’t missing out on tremendous opportunities.

The key to m-commerce is the fact that it is (obviously) mobile. Instead of reaching consumers while they are sitting at home or at work, retailers can connect with them no matter where they are or when it is. This includes when consumers are actually within the physical store locations. Why is this important? Most retailers would think that once they’ve drawn the consumers into their stores, then their marketing has worked. Job done.

However, if you stop there, then you’ve stopped showing your customers why they should choose you over the competition.

Why does that matter when they’re already in your store? Because a consumer with a smartphone can wander into your shop, look over a product, and then use the mobile device to comparison shop with other merchants, you need to take actions to make your offers more attractive than what can be found online.

In-store mobile commerce has, therefore, become a vital part of an overall marketing strategy. What it means is that advertising and promoting over the mobile channel doesn’t necessarily need to be done with the online shopper in mind. Instead, it fuses brick and mortar retail with the virtual world, so that technology can help to make sure the shopper in the store actually makes a purchase.

There are a full range of techniques already being used for in store mobile marketing, ranging from location based offers that send discounts, coupons, and other promotions to consumers that have entered the shop, to the use of QR codes, simplified mobile payment transactions, self checkouts, and other features for savings and convenience.