Enable consumers and shoppers to connect with your products and brand
As technology has evolved, so have consumer expectations. QR Code powered by GS1 allows consumers and shoppers to use their smartphones to connect directly to the brand to enhance consumer engagement. With limitless, brand-authorised content at their fingertips, consumers have access to real-time information like allergens, recipes, rewards, promotions and more.
Both QR Code and GS1 DataMatrix barcodes powered by GS1 bring a whole range of ways to improve business operations simply by holding a lot more information while still going “beep” at the register.
Next-level business efficiencies
2D barcodes powered by GS1 enable traceability and sustainability initiatives, reduce waste, and simplify recall and return processes.
Next-level consumer engagement
QR Codes powered by GS1 give producers, brand owners and retailers new ways to connect with consumers and shoppers.
Next-level point-of-sale
2D barcodes powered by GS1 hold more product information and go ‘beep’ at the register.
Ready to take the next step?
Retailers should prepare for 2D barcodes
While the 1D barcode is not going away, retailers will need to plan to welcome a defined set of different barcodes through their POS. With planning, this will ensure the ability to support your existing systems and to grow and scale, on your own schedule, to unlock additional capabilities.
Manufacturers have a choice of 2D barcodes
Explore the 2D barcodes that can unlock consumer engagement and help you leverage your product data to better power your business.
Use cases that include consumer engagement via mobile device
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Discover the other benefits of additional data
Encoding more product data on-pack unlocks multiple benefits as 2D barcodes can encode all the data you require to meet your business needs.
Benefits of additional data for inventory management
• Increase efficiency of processing returns: Return processes can be complicated and a lot can go wrong. Having more data attached to a product can increase the speed and efficiency tied to processing returns through providing better visibility into the product and its history.
• Unlock valuable insights with business analytics: Streamlined logistics, enhanced marketing efforts and customer experiences, more accurate forecasting and much more is possible once data is available to be analysed and turned into valuable business insights.
In addition to the GTIN, what are examples of data that could be used for inventory management?
• Batch/lot number: Batch or lot numbers can provide information to enable first-in-first-out inventory management.
• Expiration date or best before date: Retailers that scan 2D barcodes with expiration dates into inventory and out at checkout can monitor product freshness without having store associates physically check inventory.
• Serial Number: Serial number is used to identify trade items at an instance-level. This means that every individual occurrence of the trade item is unique from all others. Use of serial numbers will enable each item to be tracked independently as it moves through its lifecycle.
Benefits of additional data for traceability
• Authenticate products and enhance stakeholder confidence: Having visibility on a product’s full chain of custody can give regulators and consumers added confidence that a product is authentic.
• Efficiently perform targeted recalls: Perform targeted recalls and quickly remove impacted products from the shelf. This can also enable recalled products to be automatically caught at point-of-sale to prevent them from being sold.
In addition to the GTIN, what are examples of data that could be used for traceability?
• Batch/lot number: A single barcode that contains information about a product’s GTIN and batch/lot could help provide greater supply chain visibility, building the infrastructure for faster and more targeted recalls.
• Serial number: Serial number is used to identify trade items at an instance-level and can enable each item to be tracked independently as it moves through its lifecycle.
• Country of origin: Country of origin is another data element that could be beneficial for global trade, depending on the use case or implementation.
Benefits of additional data for freshness & waste prevention
• Ensure food and product safety: Having data in place to support managing risks in procurements, incidents, recalls and withdrawals, identifying expired products and monitoring the cold chain compliance makes products safe for consumers and end users.
• Increase product freshness: A real or perceived loss of freshness can impact whether that item is fully used in consumer homes or adds to waste in the lifecycle.
• Prevent waste: Loss seen throughout production, during shipping or storage could be prevented if the right data is available and able to be used. Information on how to recycle or reuse materials can support reducing economic cost and the overall impact of product waste.
In addition to the GTIN, what data is needed?
• Expiration date or best before date: Improvements to sell by/expiration date management can enhance product rotation for improved freshness and potentially eliminate sales of expired products. For freshness and waste prevention, “sell by” and “expiration date” are most common, but others may be needed or preferred.
Learn more about GS1 Application Identifiers - Barcodes | GS1