These quick response barcodes and location based services (LBS) are considered vital in mobile commerce.
According to the TNS Annual mobile Life Study has now been released and it has shown that businesses hoping to keep up with the latest in mobile commerce – and growth as a whole – should look to QR codes as well as LBS.
This study was conducted by one of the largest custom market research firms in the world.
What the study showed was that in the United Arab Emirates, an area where the penetration of mobile devices has reached 92 percent – among the study participants – 43 percent of those device users were already taking part in LBS based services, and an additional 53 percent expressed an intention to begin doing so when they weren’t already.
That said, the use and potential growth for QR codes also showed that this should be considered vital in mobile.
The research indicated that 19 percent of smartphone owners had already started scanning QR codes while an additional 28 percent expressed an interest in beginning to use them for the first time. According to TNS MENA CEO, Steve Hamilton-Clark “Location based services are finally ‘coming of age’ with figures showing that 19% of mobile users use QR codes and 28% are interested in using them.”
The research looked into LBS and QR codes, but also the behaviors, motivations, responses, and attitudes of consumers as a whole. It showed that 37 percent were regularly using location based services to find their way around and to locate their friends, while an additional 27 percent were using them instead of a separate GPS device so that they would be able to find point of interest that were nearby.
Hamilton-Clark also pointed out that by providing advanced features such as QR codes, LBS, home control, and even speech to text, the doors are opened to a great deal of growth potential. He said that “As more people gain access to smartphone technology, they are eager to use new content and multiple functions as long as they deliver convenience, experience, reassurance, relevance and independence.”
He explained that the study showed a far larger willingness of consumers to engage with mobile commerce services and that marketers will need to start paying attention to engagement level and targeting of LBS and QR codes.
