The Alibaba Group is expanding the functionality and application of scannable codes, such as QR codes, to enable a more interactive and holistic consumer experience for users and complement its existing mobile and online-to-offline and offline-to-online (O2O) commerce initiatives.
Scannable codes are already popular in China where millions use them to follow their favorite companies on social media, or to redeem discounts at offline stores. During Alibaba Group’s 11.11 Shopping Festival last year, consumers could scan product QR codes on their mobile phone from more than 300 brands, including Uniqlo, Toys “R” Us and Gap, across 30,000 brick-and-mortar stores to add items directly into their virtual Tmall.com shopping carts.
Scannable code technology will be integrated with various segments of the platform experience, including product listings, customer service, logistics and marketing activities. It will also give shoppers on Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com access to better customer service by allowing them to scan codes to contact after-sales support staff or scan codes to download product manuals instantly.
With the technology users in China, for instance, will be able to go into a supermarket to scan the codes of groceries to put them into their online shopping cart. They can then directly purchase the groceries online using their mobile devices and have groceries delivered to their homes fuss free.
“Our aim is to broaden the applicability and usability of scannable codes so that users can easily be connected to additional services and content, as well as to create multiple gateways and touch points into our ecosystem via any mobile device, anytime, anywhere.” said Daniel Zhang, chief operating officer of Alibaba Group.
The company recently teamed up with PepsiCo and Tsingtao Brewery to push out 1.6 billion cans marked with QR codes that will allow users to better interact with the brands.
Some 800 million cans of Pepsi and 800 million cans of Tsingtao beer are expected to be printed with QR codes and circulated this summer. Users can scan the codes to find out if they have won another free beer or Pepsi.