The World of QR Codes and Their Use Beyond Payments For Retail Businesses
QR code to deliver multiple actions with their customers, and how Zithara can help them with it with zero technological integration
That plastic UPI card: Every store has it. It’s been a while since anyone has asked “Cash or card, sir?” because now there’s UPI. Pop open any payment app and scan it, you’ll instantly see how much you’re paying. We’ve come to understand the QR Code as something of a payment portal, an interface between the customer’s bank account and the merchant’s bank account. But QR codes existed before they were being used for payments, and they’re still being used for utilities beyond payments. However, we’ve more or less conditioned ourselves to associate the QR code with payments only.
This article is a handy guide for retail businesses to leverage the same QR code to deliver multiple actions with their customers, and how Zithara can help them with it with zero technological integration. Here we go:
- Give out information about yourself:
QR codes were first used to reroute someone to a web page online. With so many websites popping up, we can’t expect anyone to remember anything other than google.com. So QR codes became a handy way to send someone to your address on the internet, maybe enable them to open or download a catalogue, and sign-up on your mailing list. Sometimes, you’d get them to download your store’s app, if you have one. Given that every business is now going online in some way, the next problem to solve is to get traffic to your online presence. The handy QR code can do it for you.
- Communicate with them:
When foot fall becomes increasingly fleeting, and your customers are making more and more purchases online instead of in a retail store, you need to establish some kind of communication channel. Some retailers might ask for their customer’s phone number while billing. The point-of-sale system will then enable you to send them SMS-es. However, SMS marketing might just become more expensive and have very low open rates at the customer’s end. Instead of adding an extra step to your billing process (i.e., “What is your phone number, ma’am?”) you could just establish that channel via the QR code. A QR code can only be scanned from an app on a smartphone that has a valid mobile number attached to it.
- Run your own Rewards program:
The QR code is actually a very important resource for your own marketing. Gone are the days when you could count on inserting a few hundred pamphlets in your local news circulation and count on footfall. With everything going digital, you might want to retain your customers and have them spend more with you with a rewards program. While you’re used to thinking of reward points as something that only “big retailers have the bandwidth to do”, the QR code in your own store can simplify the process for you.
When you register with Zitharaas a ZiMerchant, you can accomplish all of the above tasks with a single QR code. Every time your customer pays via the Zithara QR code (which works on any UPI app), you get to decide how you reward them with ZiCoin (this is a cashback that doesn’t happen in rupees, so it costs you less that 5% of an actual cash-based discount). It then enables you to have a channel of communication with the customer.
ZiMerchants have seen a 2-3X increase in repeat purchases in the same amount of time, while giving out zero discounts even during peak “sale season”. It has also increased the average revenue per customer by 40%.
When you give out ZiCoin, you’re running a simple, effective, and highly customizable reward program with your customer, using no additional technology. The QR code is a tool that everyone is familiar with and neither you, nor your customer need to spend time learning or building new behaviours.
To become a ZiMerchant today, register here.