DISCUSSION

Will 2-D Barcodes Add A New Dimension To Shopping?

April 19, 2023Written by RetailWire Staff

The QR code was a bit of a joke a decade or so ago. More recently, the novel coronavirus pandemic made QR codes a regular fixture in restaurants for viewing menus and a commonly used solution for other contact-free use cases. By 2027, the QR code, or technology very similar to it, is slated to replace what has been a familiar sight in retail for nearly 50 years—the UPC code. GS1 US, the non-profit standards body in charge of barcodes, has announced an initiative called Sunrise 2027, which will replace the long-familiar UPC with a two-dimensional, QR-code-style alternative, according to Axios. Two-dimensional barcodes, with information encoded along both the X-axis and Y-axis rather than in a single line, can store and provide the customer or employee scanning a product with much more information than a traditional UPC. Because of that, the codes purport to offer several advantages over the legacy technology, including:

Giving stores access to information about recalls, sell-by dates and other information at the shelf edge to manage inventory and discounting better;
Giving customers access to enhanced product information such as ingredients, recipes and sustainability information;
Allowing customers to access loyalty and rewards programs at the point of purchase when an item is scanned.

While QR codes may have proven themselves as a more convenient solution in some instances over the past few years, the widespread adoption of 2-D barcodes throughout all of retail could introduce some new types of risk. QR code fraud has already emerged as the codes have become more common, according to an article by Chargeback Gurus. More common scams have replaced publicly displayed codes with stickers of new codes that point viewers to malicious links that install malware or steal funds directly by routing a payment to a different recipient. More inventive ones have arisen such as fake parking tickets with QR codes to scan in the parking lots of businesses that have implemented the codes for other use cases. Such scams could find more vulnerable marks as the codes or similar ones become more broadly used.

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