MAKE SURE YOU’RE WHERE THE CUSTOMER IS
Consumers in the western world are shopping online like never before. Apart from speed and simplicity, it’s accessibility that is decisive when making a purchase. For example, it’s easier to make a quick decision to buy if you’re sitting on a bus than if you’re walking down the street. It’s even easier if you’re at home. For example, if you’ve run out of headache tablets, using QR codes you can easily order some more, either via a QR code on the packet or via a QR code that your pharmacy issues and you can attach to your bathroom cabinet. “You either compete with reduced prices or other products, or you make sure you’re where the customer is,” says Ruben Flam, CEO of Mopper.
Imagine you’re sitting on the underground and see an advert for that book you always wanted, but keep forgetting to buy. This is Mopper’s business concept: shop directly and shop conveniently – and do it on your mobile phone. The Stockholm-based company started up in May 2010. Their application, which makes it possible to buy directly on a smartphone, is already being used to market everything from heat pumps to the wine industry and event solutions.
Integrates print with digital technology
The application’s technology is based on QR codes, which first came into use in Japan 15 years ago and are now being seen in quite a few advertising campaigns in Sweden. “There’s no more effective or cheaper way to integrate digital and printed communication, and where the sender has total control over the information,” says Ruben Flam, CEO of Mopper. As an example, he cites Heinz, whose bottles of ketchup are sold in most grocery stores. “Using QR codes, Heinz can communicate with its end customers in the same way, whether the bottles are sold at Coop or Ica. If they’d used regular barcodes instead, the information would have been open to interpretation by the chain in question.”
Endless areas of application
Book your tickets for that new film. Learn how to make yoghurt. Or get a voucher for free oysters. The areas of application for QR codes are endless. “You mustn’t belittle other marketing technologies. But few can match QR codes when it comes to combining printed and digital media, while at the same time giving the consumer added value,” says Ruben Flam. The payment solutions used in Mopper’s application are PayPal and Klarna Faktura. Anyone with an account registered at PayPal can complete purchases on their mobile phone by pressing a few simple keys.
“PayPal’s a quick and easy way to pay for something. And being able to make quick purchases is the be-all and end-all for modern consumers,” explains Ruben Flam, continuing: “We discussed it first with Swedish banks, but for understandable reasons they find it difficult to keep up with technical developments.”
Quicker purchases in future
He points out that the moment when a decision to purchase is made often lasts milliseconds. And that you can never sit back and relax. There is a surge in developments of new ways of communicating and consuming. “Sweden hasn’t come as far in the use of QR codes as Japan and the USA. But we’re just about keeping up with the leading countries in Europe, the UK, France and Germany.” Ruben Flam believes that consumers of the future will be able to collect the QR codes of the items they use most often in their own QR library. “We’re heading in that direction, it’s our aim that consumers will be able to subscribe to the products and services they want, and then simply order them straight from their mobile phone.”