QR Codes for Black Friday: Ten Ways to Maximize Business

The holiday season is right around the corner and we are as excited about it as you are! It’s just the time when we all get super exciting deals and discounts and it’s just as great for the economy too.

According to statistics, an average shopper spent about $998 during the holiday season in 2020. And Black Friday happens to be the busiest shopping day of the season.

Hence, not only the shoppers but retailers equally look forward to it. Be it apparel, jewelry, gadgets, or skincare, every retailer wants to maximize their business.

And you want to do the same. So you’re looking for ways to maximize audience engagement to get a boost in business.

QR Codes are one way how many retailers are doing it. Over the last decade, the usage of QR Codes has increased manifold. All thanks to the increase in smartphone penetration and internet access globally.

In fact, the pandemic has catalyzed QR Code adoption too. That’s because their contactless nature makes them suitable to make several operations touchless.

In this article, we’ll discuss ten ways QR Code technology can boost your business this Black Friday.

A. QR Code technology for Black Friday

From making your marketing creatives actionable to driving them to your store, here’s how QR Codes can help:

1. Give discount coupons and vouchers

Offering discounts and deals is an indispensable part of generating sales during the holidays.

While customers get to save money, you get to increase your sales. In fact, it’s a great tactic to keep your customers coming back.

And with QR Codes, offering coupons becomes easier for retailers. These are called Coupon QR Codes.

As customers scan these, they see a landing page with coupon code and offer details. They also see an option to Redeem the coupon. No need for them to remember the coupon code or carry it all the time.

2. Guide people to your storefront

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you’d want as many potential customers as possible to visit. And to do that, you’ll have to mention your address on every promotional creative.

But here’s the thing—mentioning your address isn’t enough. Why? Because then people need to find the directions by putting quite much manual effort. And when effort increases, the conversion rate (sales here) decreases.

So a Google Maps QR Code is here to save the day. It helps add location coordinates of your store or business premises. When the end-users scan it, they get redirected to the encoded location on their maps application.

No need for them to ask anyone for directions. A simple scan would make it much simpler for them.

3. Easily collect customer responses, queries, and registrations

If you need to get people to fill out a form, QR Codes are here for you. It could be for:

• Getting responses for a survey
• Collecting registrations for pre-booking of a product or service
• Receiving customer queries or feedback

And you don’t need to have paper-based forms to do that. There are two problems here. The first is—people need to fill the forms in a handwritten manner which many don’t prefer.

The second is—it’s quite a task to maintain all the paper-based records.

So digital forms are a better alternative. And QR Codes make it easy for people to access digital forms. They just need to scan the QR Code to see the form and fill it out.

All you need is a QR Code generator that helps you create QR Codes with an in-built form.

4. Share multimedia with your audience

Do you need to share multimedia with your audience? It could be images, videos, or even audio.

Traditionally, it was not quite possible to do so via print media alone. Even if you wanted to do that, you’d have to add the accessible link to multimedia to the creatives.

Your audience will then have to type this link manually on their browsers to access the required content.

But this is a long and effort-intensive process. And to be honest, not many people bother putting in the effort.

But QR Codes are here to save the day. They make it easier for end users to access multimedia files. These include:

• Audio QR Code
• Image QR Code
• Video QR Code

You can then add these QR Codes to required print media creatives to make them actionable. When the process becomes easier, the engagement rate increases.

5. Share content digitally without having a website

Not having a website may often stop you from sharing content digitally with your audience. If you want to have one, you’ll have to get a developer on board. Now all that may be pretty expensive, right?

Well, you don’t really have to do that. A Landing Page QR Code can help you do that yourself in minutes.

It allows you to create a landing page having details such as:

• Description
• Images and videos
• Weblinks
• Files (such as documents)
• Actionable buttons
• Forms

And the good news is that you can create this QR Code yourself. No need to hire a developer to do the job. Isn’t that great?

6. Share product details

Sharing product details is a necessity today. That’s because customers are more concerned about what they’re putting their money into.

But it’s not possible for retailers or manufacturers to add product-related details to its packaging. The limited printing space acts as a constraint here. But that’s not the case with a Product QR Code.

Just like the previous example, it helps you create a landing page too. You can add both text and multimedia to it. On scanning the QR Code, customers will see this landing page which will look just like a website. Isn’t that great?

No need to worry about the printing space anymore. No matter how much information you add to the QR Code here, it’ll only occupy a little space on the packaging.

7. Easy sharing of documents

Many products such as gadgets and electrical appliances) need you to share some documents with the customers. These include user manuals, warranty guides, etc.

Also, amidst the pandemic, many customers prefer getting these documents digitally. And with QR Codes, you can do it easily.

A Document QR Code alone can help you share up to 20 document files. These could be in many different formats. For example, PDF, XLS, DOC, and PPT.

Just a scan would help the end-users access all the documents on their phones in no time. Isn’t that great?

8. Direct the audience to your social media handles

Many businesses these days leverage social media to keep in touch with customers post-purchase. After all, that’s a great way to keep your customers engaged with your brand.

So the first thing you need to do is get people to follow you online. And to do that, a Social Media QR Code can come in handy.

When end-users scan it, they see a landing page with button links to all your social media profiles. They can then select which one they want to follow you on.

No need for them to manually look for the right profile online. They can just scan the QR Code to follow you right away!

9. Drive app downloads in a hassle-free manner

If you have a mobile app for your business, you’d want the end-users to download it. And many marketers leverage App Store QR Codes to do the same.

It helps the end-users install your app with a simple scan. All they need to do is launch open the camera to scan the QR Code.

On doing so, they will be sent to App Store or Play Store depending on their phone’s operating system.

The simplification of this whole process makes the user journey better. And with that, the rate of app downloads increases.

10. Increase the traffic inflow to your website

A website is an important means to share business information with your audience. Many businesses use it to spread awareness, generate sales, and do a lot more!

And to increase traffic to your website this Black Friday, a Website URL QR Code can help you. As the name suggests, it helps you add a web link. On scanning it, the end-users land on the required webpage.

You can add this QR Code on your print media creatives, inside the store premises, invoices, etc. People will then be able to scan it to visit your website.

That’s it. These are ten ways how QR Code technology can help make Black Friday better for your business.

Also, to know how to create a QR Code, here’s a detailed guide. Also, here are some best practices you should be aware of while working with QR Codes:

a. You can add design to your QR Codes to make them look branded. Such QR Codes attract much more scans than black and white ones

b. Always add a CTA with your QR Code. It could be Scan Here to Get the Coupon or Scan Here to Visit Website. Doing this helps the end-users know what to do with the QR Code

c. Make sure your QR Code has a dark contrast with the background. Doing so ensures good scannability for your QR Code

If you’re still reading, you’ve learned how a QR Code can be used for your Black Friday campaigns. You can now start with creating your first QR Code campaign.