The QR code in a shop is one of those innovations that helps a shop run itself, serve customers and make life more convenient for them. It may sound like new technology, but QR codes have in fact been around since 1994. A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode — the name is short for Quick Response — developed by DensoWave in Japan. QR codes are enormously useful and can be put to all sorts of purposes: showing a website URL, a message, a phone number, or text of any kind. The most common use is holding a website URL, so information can be reached conveniently on a phone: scan the code and you are on the site straight away, with no URL to type. Today QR codes are also used in shops, to lift the standard of service and make running a shop or a restaurant better and more convenient.
A quick response (QR) code is a barcode in symbol form, usually square, that a user can scan with a digital device — a barcode reader or a phone. Each QR code arranges its data as a symbol in a particular form, and it can be printed in physical media or shown on a screen. Shops and restaurants can apply QR codes to putting extra information about a product in front of customers, to attaching a link that brings customers into a membership scheme, or even to taking payment.
Many people will know QR codes through marketing activity or advertising, where they usually appear on a poster or on product labelling, and you can scan to read more.
The difference between static and dynamic QR codes
A static QR code cannot have the data in it changed once you have created it. If the link changes, you have to amend everything and generate a new code. You will usually see static codes in food courts, at street stalls and in various retail shops, where the customer scans the code, is taken to a website or an app to enter the amount, and then shows the shop the payment confirmation on their phone screen. Take the account-number QR at a market stall, where you fill in the amount yourself.
A dynamic QR code, meanwhile, is far more flexible and adaptable, because the code changes with every transaction — specifying the price of each item, for instance, so the customer never enters an amount at all. Here the QR code is generated by the shop's mobile application for each transaction. It is what we meet in a restaurant, or ordering a takeaway, where we simply scan the code and the amount comes up automatically. Features like these are of enormous use to restaurants and food businesses generally.
How can a business put QR codes to work?
Statistics from 2019 showed that 48% of Singaporeans aged 25 to 34 said they used QR payment routinely in daily life. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, contactless payment became more popular still, becoming standard practice in many countries and across every type of business, small, medium and large alike.
Beyond payment, a business can use QR codes to promote the shop or its services to a target group easily, by putting a code on the packaging — or even to hand out special offers, coupons or points through a QR code, which builds interaction and improves the chances of customers coming back.
Let us look further at how your business can put QR codes to work in the shop.
Why QR codes are worth using in a shop
Payment becomes more convenient and more flexible
Take a food stall or a food booth, where getting the money right can be difficult at times because you are serving and taking other customers' orders at the same moment. Choosing a QR code for the shop — QR payment — takes the strain out of exactly that situation.
As long as the customer has a phone and an internet connection, they can lift it up, scan the QR code and be taken to a link where they can pay. Qashier's POS terminal connects to a dynamic QR generation system, so customers can pay the exact amount due straight away — something an old-style QR code simply cannot do. Using a QR code with the amount already on it reduces errors in the takings, makes the accounting steps easier, and gives you an accurate daily sales total.
Run the shop better still on a bigger screen with the Qashier XL POS terminal for running a shop, which comes with a large screen for staff and a second screen for customers, so they can see the order and scan the QR code on the screen more easily.
Handle orders more easily with QR ordering
QR ordering, or the QR code ordering system, lets you handle a flood of incoming orders easily while making life more convenient for customers. It also cuts the work for front-of-house staff, so the team can spend their time on what matters more — and it reduces your staffing costs as well.
Touch-free menus
Beyond the convenience for customers, a digital QR code menu is a restaurant's close friend, because there is no need to print a new menu every time the dishes change, and the menu can be amended for a trial run at any point. It also lets a shop update items, prices and every other detail easily, through Qashier's POS system, which is connected to the QR code you already created.
And with the Qashier QR code ordering system you can send orders through to the POS system, which passes each one to wherever it is meant to go — the kitchen or the drinks bar — easily and conveniently.
Once the customer has finished eating or using the service, the shop can take payment easily with a QashierX2 POS terminal, through the QR payments supported on every form of Qashier POS.
What it does for marketing and for the brand
Another strategy for building a relationship with customers is a social media QR code, which can take customers who visit the shop through to your social media channels, your website, and any other channel you would like them to follow. It keeps customers up to date with your business and with new promotions.
One technique we would recommend is putting a QR code to your social media at the bottom of the receipt. One of our lovely customers, Cone No.9, uses the foot of the receipt as a way for customers to scan and follow the shop on social media.
It is another thing that can build interaction between you and your customers immediately, and a way of hearing what customers have to say — their feedback. And even where those people are not customers yet, they are on your channels, which means they can be brought into the shop or become customers later on.
QR codes make after-sales service more effective
Beyond marketing and branding, a QR code system in a shop can also serve as a channel for customer service, gathering comments and suggestions from customers.
In practice, a shop can create a QR code on the product that takes customers to an online copy of the user manual. That cuts the cost of printing manuals, and the manual can be split into several languages so customers can read the one they need conveniently, without you bearing the cost of languages nobody uses. A digital file can also carry video, so you can give customers an introduction and a walk-through of using or installing the product.
Another service use for a QR code is troubleshooting tips: if a customer hits a problem, they can scan the code and read the common issues and the first steps for fixing them on the shop's website, conveniently. It can also take them to a feedback form, or a complaints or enquiries form.
And if you want customers to get help urgently, you can easily create a QR code that sends them to a call centre, a Line@ account or any other customer support channel.
Build more activity between your shop and your customers
If you want a closer relationship with customers, you can link to a survey or a newsletter sign-up and offer something in return — a discount or a privilege — so customers have a reason to take part, knowing the business will reward them. Tactics like these get potential customers engaging with the company and extend the business's reach.
QR code payment also makes cashless transactions convenient, for a safer customer experience. One study reported that both the value and the number of PayLah transactions rose after DBS Bank in Singapore added QR codes as a payment option.
In short, a business being ready for the digital economy matters enormously in coping with change — a cashless society and new technology included. In the same way, a QR code system folded into a shop management system, or a POS terminal, can help a business handle transactions and cope with the extra sales that changing consumer behaviour brings.
So it matters a great deal that owners of small and medium-sized businesses understand what their business genuinely needs before deciding on a sales management system, or on a POS terminal, that answers the different requirements of different kinds of business.
At Qashier there are several more shop management capabilities built for a digital society, as follows.
What a Qashier POS terminal can do
- QR ordering (ordering at the table by QR code)
- Table management for food businesses, or room management for massage businesses
- Staff management, clock-in and commission
- Customer relationship management (loyalty programmes)
- Membership, discounts, points and credit deduction
- Inventory management
- Reporting and data analytics
- Support for digital, cashless payment
- Price-tier management
We are also confident about how easy it is to use. A shop can be up and running on Qashier's shop management system in under ten minutes, with no technical knowledge required at all, because the screens are designed to be easy to follow and staff pick them up quickly. And if you need help with anything, our support team is available seven days a week.
Start lifting your business today with a POS system from Qashier: a shop management system that is modern, easy to use and easy to carry, fully featured for the business, able to make small, medium and large shops alike more effective and better organised. You can reach the back office from anywhere, at any time. Importantly, we have specialists on hand to help and advise you throughout. If the product interests you and you want to push the business forward, ask us for more details on Line Official: @qashier.th or call 02-544-0267