British food giant Tesco has dramatically expanded its presence in South Korea thanks to an innovative approach to the country’s extremely busy populace, according to a new video presentation made by the company.

The company’s sales trailed far behind domestic giant and market leader E-Mart so Tesco decided to cut into its rival’s market share by expanding its online presence. The company, which operates under the HomePlus banner in Korea, saw how South Korea’s long working hours prevented many from visiting their physical stores.

They also saw how South Korea had more than 10 million smartphone users, well over 20% of the total population.

So the company decided to erect several virtual stores in subway stations. They set up large billboards of virtual store shelves, replicating the physical stores exactly. Shoppers used their smartphones to scan a QR code near the item; the food would then be delivered shortly thereafter.

“I like the way that it’s exactly like shopping in the actual store,” said one satisfied female shopper, in the video.

This unique approach is a great fit for South Korea, where Internet connectivity is available everywhere, even hundreds of feet below ground on a subway platform.

The success of the program boosted the company’s sales dramatically and Homeplus is now the no. 1 online retailer in Korea and is “a very close” no. 2 in offline sales.

Check out the video after the jump:

1. 3
   Corea del Sud. La spesa si fa in metropolitana! says:

   2011-06-30 at 3:30 AM

   [...] Corea è meglio conosciuta con il nome HomePlus, ha iniziato a popolare le stazioni della metro con scaffali di negozio virtuali – in pratica dei maxi-schermi su cu sono presenti i codici QR dei prodotti in vendita nei [...]
2. 2
   韩国新的手机购物 « 失乐园 -『Snoou.com 丨崇尚智慧 思想内敛』 says:

   2011-06-30 at 2:43 AM

   [...] 这就是最近Tesco（英国著名超市） 在韩国推出的手机购物方式。他们在地铁站内放置了图中这样一个，虚拟购物墙，顾客通过扫描对应食品的QR 码，便能得到一个购买确认信息，点击确认，快递公司便能将食物送到你家。 [...]
3. 1
   Koreans Go Grocery Shopping, Virtually. - Technabob says:

   2011-06-28 at 7:19 PM

   [...] KoreAm via My Modern Met] [...]

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