The Practical Application of the Best Buy QR Codes

As an employee of interlinkONE, I’ve been surrounded by QR Codes for quite a little while now.

I’ve had fun searching for them, blogging about them, demonstrating their use in videos, and seeing how our customers were using them (oh, and John Foley, Jr. “tattooed” one on me).

Recently, I also had the privilege of also being pushed to spend money thanks to QR Codes.

Inside Best Buy‘s stores, they have a QR Code printed below most of the products that are on display. Here’s an example:

For a long time, the Pinto household has been completely happy with the 18 inch television set that I bought at Walmart in 1998. However, it slowly became harder and harder to watch movies on that size of a screen (hey, I am over 30 now!).

Thus, we saved up for a bit and watched for deals. Finally one hit and we headed to Best Buy. Unfortunately, a hundred other people also thought the deal was spectacular. The TV was sold out by the time we got there.

For an instant, we considered going home (or at least to Smokey Bones to drink our disappointment away). But then we saw QR Codes on the labels for TVs that were in stock. Rather than wait for a sales rep to help us, we started scanning. Instantly, we were able to read through reviews from other customers. We skimmed through detailed specifications.

And then, we made the decision — we’re not going home with an empty backseat. We are buying one of these time-suckers. So, the wallet came out and we made the purchase.

I truly do think that other retail stores could increase customer satisfaction and sales by looking at what Best Buy is doing.

They’ve made their printed materials interactive, and they’ve found a way to better serve the growing mobile audience.