Tesco executives in South Korea (where Tesco is called Home Plus) have an innovative approach in their endeavour to become the No 1 retail store. One in five people in South Korea are smartphone users. They are also amongst the hardest workers in the world with very little time for shopping. So Tesco decided that the best way to grow market share was to bring their shops, in a virtual form, to its customers and provide them with a way to purchase products while they are communting. The result is virtual stores on subway platforms. Tesco plastered the glass walls of subway stations with pictures of their products, laid out just as they’d be in a traditional shop. The ‘shelves’ of virtual food and produce feature QR codes, unique to the product in question, which can then be scanned by the commuters using their mobile smartphone. Customers are able to build up a shopping basket in the few minutes before the train arrives. Customers love it, and as innovations go this is an excellent out of the box retail concept. Have a look at the video Tesco released on You Tube as part of it’s promotion.
