New research into the mobile consumer buying habits of men and women reveals that, not only do men shop more via mobile devices than women, but they also make more use of barcode scanners.

As mobile devices become the most common way people get online, uSamp decided to conduct a survey of the mobile shopping habits of 1,100 men and woman, ages 18 – 75. The results may surprise many people in that it found men to be the bigger online mobile shoppers.

What was everyone buying?

• 27% of males purchase consumer electronics on mobile vs. 8% of females
• 23% of males purchase movie and event tickets on mobile vs. 11% of females
• 30% of males purchase digital content on mobile vs. 20% of females
• 13% of males purchase food and drinks on mobile vs. 8% of females
• 8% of males purchase office supplies on mobile vs. 4% of females

Another interesting result from the study was that 91% of the time men were scanning barcodes with their mobile purchase versus the 85% of women. The survey found that men and woman who scan barcodes with mobile devices are shopping at these types of stores:

• Electronic store: 27% male vs. 12% female
• Convenience store: 7% male vs. 3% female
• Health & Beauty Store: 6% female vs. 2% male

More info on the study can be found here.

The applications you can put QR Codes to use may range from coupons to advertising campaigns but this has got to be one of the more unique applications.

The New Zealand brewing company Yeastie Boys incorporate several QR Codes on the labeling of their Digital IPA.  These codes lead customers to various web pages including Facebook and Twitter accounts but one of the QR Codes lead to the full recipe of the beer, which essentially makes Digital IPA the world’s first open source beer!

If you are looking to incorporate 2D barcodes in your business and need help getting started, contact us at Barcodes Inc.

Many retailers experience a slow part of the day which can be a difficult challenge to solve.  Sometimes the best answer is engaging your customers in new and creative ways.

South Korea’s largest retailer, E-mart, was seeing a a large dip in daily business from 12pm to 1pm and came up with a novel way to get customers into stores.  They created a shadow QR code that was only scannable between 12pm and 1pm when the sun was in a position to cast the correct shape shadow.  When people would see these shadow QR codes outdoors they could use their smartphone to read them.  Once scanned, they are lead to a ‘Sunny Sale’ homepage with special offers, coupons and a download for the Emart ecommerce app.  This simple yet clever campaign helped increase Emart’s sale by 25% during their once difficult lunchtime slump. The campaign was conceived and managed by Cheil Worldwide who were also responsible for the virtual grocery store in Hangangjin subway station in Seoul.

Today, retailers face a new connected customer that expects a seamless and customized shopping experience across different channels, from websites to mobile applications to in-store. This new technology-empowered shopper uses the Internet and a smartphone to search, compare, evaluate, and buy products and services, and most importantly, to engage and interact with retailers in order to get tailored offers.

To meet their customers’ expectations, leading retailers are investing in new technologies and tools to capture and analyse customer behavior and align their offering with customer demands, especially in stores, where customers still make most of their shopping decisions. In-store staff needs to be empowered with new mobile solutions which improve their productivity, while helping them connect with their customers and provide personalized service.

Thanks to these new tools, retailers can capture, connect and embed the two critical dimensions of today’s retail strategy in their processes: customer insight and product information. This is what we in Honeywell call Retail 2D.

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