REI’s QR Code Store Locator

Introduction

This QR Code leads to REI's Mobile Store Locator page

Most of us in the Great Northwest have some degree of an outdoorsy spirit, and for those of us who actually get out in nature on occasion, REI is an established starting point for gear and advice.

On the back of last month’s REI magazine, we were thrilled to find – next to some “Winter Boots for Family Fun” – a QR code which was there to help you locate the REI store nearest you. I eagerly grabbed my Android, launched my barcode scanner app, and scanned the QR code to “watch the magic happen”, as they put it. I wasn’t entirely disappointed.

The Basics

Mobile Technology Rating

QR code
	First off, props to REI for embracing mobile technology (as they have before) – we have pretty high expectations since this isn’t REI’s first forray into the mobile arena. Initially, we weren’t disappointed! The QR code points to a mobile-optimized webpage (many campaigns forget the painfully obvious point that the webpage needs to look good on mobile devices since mobile devices will be scanning the QR code) which looked pretty good on the Android and Windows Mobile devices we tested on.
Device Detection
	Webpage without Device Detection Device detection (technology on a website that recognizes when a mobile device is trying to load the site and gives it a mobile version) is certainly present on the indicated URL rei.com/stores, as it worked on our T-Mobile My Touch 3G by redirecting it to a page on m.rei.com, and it worked on our Sony Ericsson K5501 and other flip phones. Detection failed, however, on our HTC Touch Diamond (see screen shot), and only partially worked on the Blackberry Pearl (8130). It’s true that detecting every single mobile device is tricky, but you should have a fail-safe plan. For example, include “reading this from a mobile device? Click here” at the top of desktop webpages that you expect smartphones may see.
Mobile Web
	The sope of this review doesn’t cover the entire mobiel REI site, but the page that the QR code takes you to certainly looked good on mobile devices and functioned as it was supposed to. A search for “seattle” pulled up all of the REI stores in the Greater Seattle Area. However, who wants to type in their location into a GPS-enabled smartphone?
GPS
	This is where we started to get disappointed with the experience. The mobile webpage looked good, but the store locator required that we search by zip code or city. Why can’t I share my location so that m.rei.com can tell me that their Seattle flagship store is just three blocks away from where I’m standing? This is 2010, folks. (Almost 2011.) We shouldn’t need to type in the city or zip code of where we’re standing to search for businesses on smartphones.

Final Rating: 3 stars

REI is definitely on the right track here, and this experience would have earned 5 stars if it happened in 2008. However, almost all smartphones now have GPS, and this is feature that searchers on mobile smartphones expect. For now, I’ll use Google to find REI from my phone.
Learn more about mobile marketing at knovolo.com.