Blog: Tesco's South Korean subway shopping scheme impresses

Petah Marian | 24 June 2011

Often when I take to this blog it's to poke fun or be critical of things, but this time around I've found something to get particularly excited about.

This impressive video of Tesco's Homeplus subway shopping scheme in South Korea has been making its way around the internet over the past 24 hours.

Tesco launched the scheme, which allows customers to shop using QR codes and billboards on a subway platform, as a means of competing with the country's number one retailer, E-Mart, without adding any more stores. 

Customers scan QR codes under the images of the products they want, and when the online purchase is done, the goods are delivered to their door once they get home.

According to the agency that produced the campaign (or is it store concept?), Cheil Worldwide, the campaign increased Tesco's online sales by 130% and made Homeplut become the number one online grocer in the country, and a "very close" second offline.