Korean Tesco aka. Homeplus’ new Model of Retails to Tremendously Increase Online Sales.
————————————————-
What I think about this campaign:
1. This is GENIUS. The campaign is a HUGE success. No matter what people say, just look at the number: 76% increase in subscribed online users + 130% increase in online sales. Made the company no.1 in online retail in S.Korea. That’s GREAT!
2. Convenience? People told me using paper billboard & QR code is inconvenient for customers. Those people must have not attending retail classes like I did; And they don’t know how QR code is catching up with the rise of smartphone in the world (especially in developed areas like S.Korea).
This is a HELL GREAT WAY of shopping for groceries and SAVE a huge amount of time. How? Let me break it down for you:
- Shoppers don’t have to go ALL THE WAY into the supermarket to shop. They are tired after a hard working day.
- They can shop while they WAIT for the subway/train - which I assume is a lot of wasted time there.
- They DON’T have to WAIT to be Served and Check out at the cashiers (even the self-service is not helping. It can be confusing enough to take more time than normal check-outs). Money is being transferred via online banking which is great, I think. Exactly to every single cent and no more tiny little coins being lost elsewhere.
- Customers DON’T have to CARRY their groceries after shop by themselves. Goods are delivered to their doors. PERFECT! If you live in highly populated areas like London or New York, you wouldn’t want to carry all the groceries with you to the trains/tubs/buses etc. Think about the crowd/other passengers and think about the quality of the stuff you bought being “smashed” and “heated” during the trip home.
- This is also a Convenience For the Company since Homeplus wants to increase their online sales and keeping the costs down.
3. HUGE SAVE of COSTS.
- No more huge costs of opening NEW STORES. The company has to ask for permission from local authority, buy or rent a piece of land, build the store or re-decorate it. Those fixed costs are so HUGE, it’ll take a decade to break-even.
- Then the Human Resource costs (store workers, cashiers, cleaners, and security officers).
- And Logistics costs (delivers goods from central warehouses to local stores, and put stuff on shelves).
This new model SAVE a Fortune if you ask me. I VOTE for it!
4. MARKETING!!!! A huge marketing success, attracting a lot attention from EVERYBODY. People discuss about it, people tell each other about it, people stop by the subway to see how it looks like, to experience it. It goes VIRAL! It’s Marketing GOLD!
5. More discussion about Why Use Paper Billboard instead of Interactive Displays.
- First of all, paper is cheap. Sure a HELL LOT CHEAPER than your iPad. The revolution in touch-screen devices have taken all of the supply in the world. It’s not cheap to use those around, you know. You can’t just throw money into it that easily.
- Installation of paper billboard is also easier than setting up a HUGE display of 3m x 5m. Then you will have to maintain it, setup security to protect it. Ahh, no, not “it” but “them”. I’m talking about a large amount of Displays here. Every little product means one interactive display. How about a million? Err… And NO, Giant multi-touch displays ARE NOT cheap, I’ll say that again.
- Then, purchasing goods and checking-outs are personal. You can’t expect a customer to sign-in with his ID at the huge screen for everybody to see and PAY money there. Besides, using personal devices like smartphones to shop is no longer strange to people in highly developed IT areas like S.Korea. People have been scanning barcodes for ages in supermarkets in the US. If somebody complains they can’t touch or feel the good, I just say, Get out of here! Scan the goddamn QR code and go to the online store to read more info about it. Period!
- Finally, this is just one BETA campaign to see the responds of the customers. Are you seriously going to invest half your company’s cash to a BETA campaign? I don’t think so. What if it failed? Who’s going to pay for the losses? Your investors won’t think so either.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What about you? What do you think? You can send me your opinion using Twitter, too.
Follow me @lemd232.
