Announcing Shopify Shopcodes for Retail

As easy as taking a photo, shopcodes let passersby go straight to a product on your online store

What are shopcodes?

Shopcodes are a new feature just announced by Shopify that let you generate QR codes that go directly to a product page or to a shopping cart. You can use a Shopify app to quickly make and edit QR codes for your store, opening up some new possibilities for advertising and marketing.

QR (quick response) codes are a series of black and white marks and stamps that don’t mean anything to humans, but when read by a mobile device take that device to a particular website. For a long time, you needed a separate app to read QR codes on a phone, but many phones these days (including all updated iPhones) can read them straight from the camera.

QR codes can make it a bit easier for mobile users to get to a specific website more easily than typing it in. If you want to direct people to a product or a very particular page on your website, a QR code lets people just take a picture of the link, instead of typing in your website and then searching for that page. They’re not used by everyone, and for customers who aren’t familiar with QR codes, it still might be a better idea to include a unique URL to your pages.

Once you generate a shopcode using You’ll get something that looks like this:

The image generated comes in .PNG or .SVG image files that you can put basically anywhere.

Attach discounts to shopcodes

You can even attach particular discounts to shopcodes, making them a good way to grab attention or be context-specific. For example, you could put a 10% off discount for those who scan the shopcode at a product launch event.

Get shopcodes for your Shopify store here

Where can you put shopcodes?

Shopcodes can help you make the transition from offline to online selling easier. For businesses trying to move towards omni-channel retail, Shopcodes are a great way to connect the physical, mobile and online shopping experience. Here are a few places you can put your shopcodes.

On advertisements

If you’re printing out ads in public places for your store, such as in other shops, at bus stops or elsewhere, shopcodes can be a good way to get people who are on-the-go to get directly to your store. Many people are too busy when they pass an ad to actually type in a url, but if they can just snap a picture it could get them interacting with your brand sooner.

On product packaging

EBOOST has an example of putting a shopcode straight onto their packaging. This is great for companies that want to encourage people to re-order, or want to give special discounts to existing customers who’ve already paid for their products.

Marketing materials

Similarly, you can put shopcodes onto leaflets, flyers and other marketing materials used by you or a partner company. This can be a good way to encourage new prospective customers to try out your products, by making it as easy as taking a picture to get to what you’re advertising. Because you can include special discounts in shopcodes, you can give a little extra push on your marketing materials.

In your retail store

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can include shopcodes on your merchandise to make life easy for you and the customer. Put shopcodes on items with other variations of sizes and colours, so a shopper can see a bigger selection online; or they can try something out in-store then buy it online from the comfort of their home. Directing in-person shoppers to your online store also gives you an opportunity to upsell them with related products.

At pop-ups, markets and events

Shopcodes are a great way to get prospective customers to get on your website during markets and events when there are loads of other sellers around. If someone is browsing and seems interested, you could hand them a business card with a shopcode, or simply encourage them to snap a pic of your shopcode while they’re browsing so they don’t feel pressure to do the “oh thanks I’ll pop by again after I see other stuff” polite shoptalk. If you’re at an event, shopcodes can help you stand out against other suppliers, who aren’t making it as easy to buy something right away.

What’s next?

What perhaps we’d like to see soon is the ability to use Shopcodes with the Shopify POS app, so you can scan them as a merchant and add to a customer’s cart. For now though, they’re still a cool feature that makes it easier to get in-person prospective customers onto your store. You can track how well they’re doing to convert customers in your Shopify dashboard and reports.

Just install the extension into your Shopify store and get starting making QR shopcodes! If you would like any extra support in developing a strategy to use shopcodes, come talk to us.

*images via Shopify