Virtual store in Korea uses QR codes

South Korea’s Home Plus chain, owned by Tesco, is using QR codes and smartphones to offer time-pressed consumers a virtual shopping experience as they wait for the subway.

Subway walls are plastered with products on shelves, recreating the look of a real grocery store.

The only difference is that the shelves feature QR codes that are scanned by the traveller’s phone and put into their virtual shopping carts.

Once the purchase is completed, within minutes or hours, the products are delivered to the consumer's home address.

The application was developed with Cheil Worldwide, an advertising and online development group.

Virtual stores are a more cost-effective venture for Tesco versus physical stores, and seem to be profitable as the Telegraph reports sales have increased 130 per cent in the last three months, with the number of registered users up by 76 per cent.

Home Plus is now the number one online grocer in Korea (the retailer is the No. 2 traditional grocer behind E-Mart, but the gap is narrowing).

Tapping into the smartphone user population makes sense in South Korea, where there are more than 10 million of them (out of a population of less than 50 million).

Check out Home Plus’ virtual grocery store in the video below: