Marketers increasingly develop strategies to benefit from the potentials of the mobile internet and related technologies. Digitally enhanced product packaging is one prominent example for this evolution and QR (quick response) codes currently give this trend an appearance. QR codes enable manufacturers to provide consumers - despite the limited space on the product package - with comprehensive product information. And consumers increasingly request additional product information, for instance, to monitor environmental factors before purchasing products. Hence, while marketers nowadays regularly use QR codes on product packages to provide consumers with additional product information, they complain about the low usage rates and finally about the effectiveness of QR codes. Extant literature provides little guidance on consumer responses towards these marketing stimuli and, in particular, on how the mere presence of QR codes on product packages affects consumer behavioral and behavior-related responses. Existing research unexceptionally explores how marketers can motivate consumers to scan QR codes (Okazaki et al., 2012; Okazaki et al., 2017) and thus draws a one-sided picture of how marketers can benefit from QR codes. To enrich extant knowledge, this research uses information processing and environmental theory to offer insights into whether and how QR codes on product packages affect consumer product purchasing. The findings of an experimental study illustrate that QR codes affect consumer product purchases by inducing product- and vendor-related cognitive beliefs. In particular, the presence of QR codes on product packaging strengthens consumers’ perceptions about product quality and vendor innovativeness which then positively translate into purchase intentions. Hence, QR codes displayed on product packaging indirectly shape product purchasing. In sum, this research broadens the previous focus on usage-related outcomes by considering how and why QR codes affect consumer purchasing.

• Stefanie Sohn(Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany)
• Wolfgang Fritz(Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany)