eBay embrace the physical space

A peculiar move when all other retailers seem to be fully optimising their sites for mobile browsing and developing apps ahead of the festive rush. But eBay’s pop-up store is also utilising QR codes; a reasonably creative technology but we’re still waiting to see whether it will burst into the mainstream.

Branching out into two brand new formats of retail during the Christmas shopping period may seem risky, but it’s only a five-day experiment. So if anything, the pop-up novelty should be enough for eBay to ride on, or even up eBay’s stature for its ambitious digital gamut.

eBay’s five-day shopping experiment will begin on December 1st in Dean Street, Soho, near Oxford Street. It will feature 200 items on sale and shoppers simply scan the desired item into their smartphone, a downloadable QR code reader is needed here. Or, if you’re yet to enter into the smartphone arena, eBay has partnered with HTC in order to lend out devices to make your purchase on.

Once the users scan their favourite product they are then directed to the checkout page of the product on eBay’s main site, where they complete their purchase online.

“We are opening the store to cover the ‘Super Sunday’ weekend at the beginning of December, which traditionally sees the most number of people shopping online,’ said Laura Williamson, eBay’s head of consumer PR. She expects to see more than 5m visitors to eBay’s website on Sunday 4th, buying up to 30 gifts per minute.

Again, the selling point lies in the novelty. I say this because eBay have partnered the inconvenience of physical Christmas shopping on the high street with the rigmarole of an online check out service, (incorporating a mobile payment feature would eliminate this hassle). Aside from the tangible benefits of seeing something before you buy it, the advantage of this lies in it being a great PR stunt.

On top of this, the wider public are still not completely comfortable with using QR codes, potentially impacting on sales.

So, it will be interesting to see what kind of results this latest service generates this Christmas.

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