apna.live
Nearly every Indian shop counter has a QR code on it, and almost all of them do exactly one thing: take a payment.
That is a lot of scanning attention, from customers who are already standing in front of you and already have their phone open, being used for one purpose.
Here is what else that square of space can do.
1. A Google review
The highest-value alternative, by a distance.
A customer who has to open Google, search your name, scroll and find the review button will mostly not bother. A customer who scans a code that opens the review box directly, very often will.
This one change is the difference between two reviews a month and thirty. It is the single most effective piece of physical marketing available to a small business.
Print it, put it beside the payment QR, and have whoever hands over the bill point at it and say one sentence.
2. Your catalogue or menu
For a shop with more range than fits on the counter, or a restaurant that has stopped printing menus.
Make sure it opens a proper page and not a PDF. A PDF menu on a phone loads slowly, zooms badly and cannot be read one-handed. A plain web page opens instantly and works on every phone.
3. Your WhatsApp, with the message pre-written
"Scan to order on WhatsApp" is a good deal for both sides. The customer does not have to save your number, and the chat opens with a message already written — "Hi, I would like to order…" — so they are past the awkward first message.
Very effective on packaging and delivery boxes, where the customer is at home and might reorder.
4. Your website
Broad, but useful in specific places: on your visiting card, your shopfront glass, your vehicle, your bill. Someone who wants to look you up later can capture you in one scan instead of trying to remember your name.
5. Something specific and current
A festival offer, a new collection, a booking page, a form to join your WhatsApp broadcast list for genuine customers who opt in.
These work best when the code is temporary and clearly labelled. A generic code labelled "scan for offers" gets ignored; "Scan for this week's Diwali hamper prices" gets scanned.
How to make one that works
Label it. A bare QR code is scanned by almost nobody. Say what happens. "Scan to leave a Google review." "Scan for our full menu." The label matters more than the code.
Make it big enough. For a counter code, at least 4 cm across. Small codes fail in poor light, which is most Indian shop counters.
Test it in your actual lighting, from a normal standing distance, with a cheap phone. Not just your own.
Print it properly. A code printed on a home printer on plain paper, taped to the counter, curling at the corners, communicates something about the business. Get it laminated or put it on a small acrylic stand. It costs a couple of hundred rupees.
Do not put it behind the till where nobody can see it, or on the wall behind you where the customer cannot reach.
Use a short, stable link. If you might change where it points later, use a link you control, so you can redirect it without reprinting.
Where else to put it
On the bill. Printed at the bottom of every receipt.
On the packaging. Especially for delivery, where the customer opens the box at home in a good mood.
On the delivery vehicle.
In your WhatsApp confirmation message, as a link rather than a code.
On the shopfront glass, so people can capture your details out of hours.
The one to start with
If you only do one, do the review code, and pair it with a person saying a sentence.
The code without the sentence is worth much less than people expect. The sentence without the code is worth much less too, because the customer says yes and then does not follow through. Together they work.
"If you were happy today, would you scan this and leave us a review? Takes twenty seconds and it really helps us."
Say it thirty times a day for a month and your listing will look different.
Apna.live's Google Reviews add-on generates a printable counter code for your business. See how it works.
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