Protect your brand from counterfeiters and improve brand trust with overseas customers. See how 2D barcodes provide the solution.
Counterfeit food and beverage products are competing with Australian exporters for shelf space overseas, and in many cases are actually outselling the real deal. This can do lasting damage to a brand, not to mention put consumers in danger.
Because the 2D barcode can hold a large amount of data in a small space, and can be scanned by consumers’ smartphones, you can use it to demonstrate product authenticity and provenance, which ultimately protects your brand, customers, and profits.
Consumers simply scan the 2D barcode using their smartphone to identify the individual product, along with its origin and other key information, such as recipes or instructions.
With the ability to digitally carry more data and content, 2D barcodes allow you to provide different data to different partners along the supply chain, right through to the consumer:
Brand protection and anti-counterfeiting: Provides detailed product information and provenance to consumers and trading partners, which prevents the risk of counterfeit products and protects the brand.
Greater brand trust: Provides consumers with reassurance they’re buying the legitimate brand through product authentication.
Improved consumer engagement: 2D codes can encode webpage links, so when the consumer scans the code, you can direct them to further information about the product or brand, such as manuals, video guides or engaging content.
Market research: Use 2D barcodes to engage with consumers through surveys at the point of scan, helping you to understand your target audience. Some technologies even allow you to see where products have been scanned, so you have visibility of your market.
What are your business goals for using the 2D barcodes? For example, do you want to ensure consumers know your brand is authentic? This will determine what data is embedded in your 2D barcode.
Also, understand any legal or regulatory requirements of the country you are exporting to.
Decide whether to use GS1 DataMatrix or QR codes, depending on your goals.
Work out which additional data attributes are required based on your use case, trading partners, and industry guidance.
Many brand owners already have experience printing variable data in line, with human-readable batch/lot numbers and use-by dates.
However, you may need to still upgrade in-line printing systems to print 2D barcodes for export applications.
Talk to Matthews Australasia about which equipment will best fit your printing and labelling needs.
The business case for 2D barcodes on export products is strong. Consider the cost of not using 2D barcodes to authenticate your products in export markets.
Without 2D barcodes to help authenticate your products and show provenance, you can lose customers and market share.
Start discussions with solution providers early. They can recommend and help guide you towards the right coding, labelling or data capture solution for your needs, which will ensure a smooth transition for all involved.
Human readable interpretation (HRI) text refers to text printed exactly as it is encoded in the barcode. For 2D barcodes encoding a large amount of data, it is not practical to display all the data in HRI form.
It is mandatory to print the GTIN (at a minimum) underneath a GS1 DataMatrix barcode. This enables manual processing of the GTIN at POS when the barcode cannot be scanned.
GS1 Application Identifiers (AI) are used to enable scanners to understand what information it is reading. An AI code is required in front of each piece of data.
Each AI is a numeric code made up of two, three, or four digits.
Common AIs include:
01 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)
391 Sell price
310 NET weight in kgs
17 Use by/ Expiry date
15 Best before date
10 Batch/Lot number