💡 Vendor Stall QR Code for Instant Follow & Discovery

[github-actions[bot]]

Summary

Generate a unique, printable QR code for each vendor that deep-links to their Markets profile. Customers scan at the stall to instantly view the vendor's product catalog, freshness status, and follow with one tap — converting in-person discovery into digital retention without requiring search or name recall.

Market Signal

Seen Markets already uses QR codes for shopper engagement at markets, validating the physical-to-digital bridge pattern. Post-COVID QR adoption is universal — 89% of US consumers have scanned a QR code (Statista 2025). Localize and Farmish both lack any physical-market integration, relying entirely on pre-visit digital discovery. The behavior pattern is established consumer muscle memory, not a new user education challenge. Source: seenmarkets.com, Statista QR code adoption survey (Aug 2026).

User Signal

The PRD's Journey 3 describes Brad's key moment: "A new customer tells him: I found you through the app." Currently, this requires the customer to have discovered Brad digitally before visiting the market. A stall QR code enables the reverse path: physical discovery → digital retention. This directly serves the 90-day target of "10+ new followers per participating vendor" by creating a frictionless follow conversion at the point of maximum customer intent — the moment they are tasting the product at the stall.

Technical Opportunity

Implementation is minimal: generate a unique URL per vendor (e.g., markets.app/v/{vendorId}), encode as QR, and provide a downloadable/printable template from the vendor profile screen. The deep link resolves to the vendor profile with a prominent "Follow" CTA. Expo Router's deep linking support handles the routing natively. No new backend infrastructure required — this is a frontend feature using existing vendor profile data. QR generation can use a lightweight library like react-native-qrcode-svg.

Assessment

Dimension	Score	Rationale
Feasibility	high	Near-zero implementation cost: deep link URL + QR generation + printable template. All within existing architecture.
Impact	med	Drives follow conversion at point of maximum intent; enables reverse discovery (physical→digital). Directly serves vendor follower KPI.
Urgency	med	Valuable from launch day — helps vendors build their follower base during the critical early adoption window.

Adversarial Review

Strongest objection: Vendors need to actually print and display the QR code, which requires behavior change. The feature only works for customers who are already at the market — they could just search the app instead.

Rebuttal: The cost of trying is near zero — vendors can screenshot the QR and display it on their phone at the stall if they lack a printer. Market managers can bulk-print QR table tents as part of market materials (extending Seen Markets' print shop pattern). The key insight is that QR scanning is faster than searching by name and works reliably for vendors with hard-to-spell names or when the customer doesn't catch the name. It is impulse-follow at peak intent — the moment the customer is tasting the honey and thinking "I want to come back for this."

Suggested Next Step

Create a quick spec for QR code generation on vendor profiles: deep link URL scheme (/v/{vendorId}), QR generation component, printable template design (table tent format with vendor name and logo), and manager bulk-print option for all rostered vendors.