QR Box Store Opens Doors In The Hague

Remember the box store? In The Hague, an interesting new retail concept has opened doors recently. Twiet.nu is a cross-over between a box store and a webshop. The company rents out boxes in a shopping street window to webshop owners which they can use to display their products offline for once and promote it to another group of potentially interested people. By scanning a QR code shoppers can purchase products immediately on their smartphones.

Some time ago we featured the box store — a micro-shopping concept from Asia. Twiet.nu is the digital version. The sellers do not only share the costs of expensive display space at an attractive shopping location, they also share digital exposure. Each vendor has his/her own box to promote products offline, but profits from the collective digital services of the concept at the same time. The monthly fee of €129 for a box also includes a social media package of two tweets and two Facebook posts. This way Twiet.nu claims to combine both online and offline promotion.

Clients can’t really enter the shop to buy stuff inside as the actual space is used for events, but they can see the actual product in the shopping window. This makes the concept different from QR shops like this QR supermarket in Seoul. The shop currently has a wide selection of products in the boxes — Martin sells a special selection of local quality beers, Chatoui offers hand-made bags from recycled materials, and CANstyling sells interior design stuff for kids. The concept is not for webshop owners only — also private people or local entrepreneurs can sell their stuff through Twiet.nu. So what about Ernst, who tries to sell his oversized house in the suburb of Ypenburg?