Brief
Dive Brief:
Shopify and 11 Honoré, a luxury, size-inclusive e-commerce retailer, offered attendees of this week’s New York Fashion Week show a catalog with runway looks that featured QR codes enabling real-time mobile shopping, according to a Shopify email sent to Retail Dive.
The Shopify QR Shopcodes allow users to scan codes with their mobile smartphones to be steered directly to 11 Honoré’s online store to purchase products in real time.
Shopify also partnered with 11 Honoré on a physical pop-up store to offer shoppers designer items that were on the runway and products that are also available on the retailer’s online store. The pop-up is located at 157 Hudson St. in New York.
Dive Insight:
Putting QR codes into a catalog is not a new idea. Retailers and brands have been doing it for years. Brookstone, for example, offered the capability way back in 2011.
However, New York Fashion Week presented a great opportunity for Shopify and 11 Honoré to use the technology. It was 11 Honoré‘s first time at the event and one of the first times size-inclusivity has been given a high-profile, opening spot, according to a Refinery 29 post.
Also, given the fast-paced nature of Fashion Week, it was a good opportunity to showcase a mobile shopping capability. If attendees took a moment to look at a catalog or research where to buy fashions they saw on the runway, they likely did so via mobile. Placing Shopcodes into a Fashion Week catalog made it easier for anyone browsing the catalog to move more quickly from their impulse to look up an item they saw on the runway to their decision to buy that item.
Shopify has been upping its mobile game in recent months, with efforts like an in-app shopping channel with Snapchat, augmented reality support tools for its merchants and Venmo acceptance at checkout. It will be worth watching to see if the company has more interesting use cases to come for Shopcodes.
Top image credit: Shopify