Between the Aisles: Farmstead Goes White

Here’s what you’ve might have missed in the last week or so:

Walmart Goes QR

Customers at 70 Sam’s Club locations will speed their time at the gas pump. With Scan & Go Fuel, customers won’t have to dig for their membership card. Users scan a QR code and select a payment method to activate the pump. They added Scan & Go four years in-store and expects to complete the rollout to 518 stores by yearend.

My Take: QR codes are a tired technology and often leveraged as a solution looking for a problem. That said, extending this feature to the pump might drive more adoption in-store.

Hardware Goes High Fashion

Lowe’s provided furnishings for virtual shows during New York Fashion Week. Three designers got free flooring and furnishings. The retailer also streamed their events streamed on its Twitter account. Result: Lowe’s scored a bulk of the social media mentions.

My Take: Beware of who you partner with as a brand. And I do hope these designers got a cut of Lowe’s online sales.

Farmstead Goes White

Local grocery startup Farmstead will white label their platform for US-base retailers. Rebranded as Grocery OS, their platform will manage inventory, orders, and delivery logistics. And they claim “National two-hour delivery.”

My Take: Developing internal technology and implementing externally are two very different tasks. This is especially true when your customers are tech laggards. And as a current Farmstead customer, I still can’t get groceries from them within two hours.

Between the Aisles is a weekly quick read on relevant grocery and other retail industry news.

The Unkindest Cut

I’ve run a nonprofit–resources are tight and cash is tighter. That’s why when I see nonprofits like the @KindestCutMN push QR code scanners to homepages, I get murphed. Here’s why:

Per Google, over 65% of people who visited a mobile-unfriendly site will never return to it.
The next 34.5% will likely never go deeper than 1-2 pages.
And the remaining 0.5% are still unlikely to convert because there’s never a clear call to action–to donate, volunteer or snip your poor pooch.

So here’s what you need you need to do:

If you can’t make your entire site mobile-optimized (due to politics or $$$), you can easily setup a 2-3 page microsite.
Create a landing page tied to each campaign. It makes it easier to track the effectiveness of your efforts…and you want to do track them.
Tell visitors what you want them to do. We’re damn indecisive and easily distracted–especially on our phones. You spent $$$ to bring us here, so tell us why and make it easy.

(And if you work for @KindestCutMN, contact me. I’m happy to help good causes.)

[Cross-posted from QR Code Critic.]