Brands are increasingly recognizing the benefits of labels and packaging featuring 2D codes, including traceability, brand protection, and consumer engagement. Yet the implementation process can be daunting, with a potential disconnect between label and packaging design, as well as the understanding of 2D code applications and how to optimize the technology. This presents a significant opportunity for converters to expand their services beyond the printing of 2D codes. Nigel Allen, marketing manager 2D Codes, Domino Printing Sciences, discusses the topic in depth.

Addressing the knowledge gap

While many brands are eager to take advantage of the benefits of 2D codes, results of the Appetite Creative Connected Packaging Survey 2025 show that, for more than a third of respondents who do not currently use connected packaging, a lack of understanding of 2D code applications and the technology behind them is holding them back. This knowledge gap presents several opportunities for converters to adapt, support their brand customers, and grow their business:

• The addition of consolidated label design and printing services, ensuring their customers’ static, dynamic, and variable 2D codes can be optimally printed and scanned;
• Differentiation through digital marketing and data solutions to support brands with QR code campaigns;
• Depth of engagement through the role of a trusted advisor, providing long-term support for brand customers, implementing variable or serialized 2D codes, and managing the data included in QR codes powered by GS1.
• Supplying secure QR codes to aid QR Code Product Authentication.

Label and Packaging Design Services

Many brands already use an agency model for their packaging and label designs. For a converter to add this capability to their current printing services, offering a comprehensive label design and printing service is a logical extension. This is a service already provided by many.

Outsourcing the end-to-end process to printing experts can offer significant value for brands, as agencies are not necessarily familiar with QR code printing requirements regarding size and optimal on-pack positioning. This may either require costly design changes at the printing stage or lead to suboptimal or unreliable scanning by retailers and consumers.

For converters already offering design services, adding digital services around 2D codes is a small step that could deliver significant benefits. There are also further opportunities to expand their capabilities and provide digital campaign solutions to their customers. Here, a converter could manage the whole process, from generating QR codes for label and packaging design to developing digital assets such as interactive apps and landing pages, alongside, of course, printing the final design. Capturing data from campaign QR code scans could evolve into a subscription-based service monitoring user engagement, enabling brands to identify regional trends and suggest new product variations and promotional campaigns.

There is also the opportunity to support brands taking advantage of data-rich QR codes powered by GS1. Regulatory applications, such as EU Digital Product Passports and electronic product labels, like the EU e-label for wine, often entail long-term responsibilities to maintain product data throughout an SKU’s lifespan. Here, a converter could support the ongoing data management required, for example, by updating ingredients and nutritional information in e-labels on behalf of their clients when needed.

Variable and Serialized QR Codes

The benefits that variable QR codes powered by GS1 could bring to a brand’s business are now widely recognized. Increasing demand for more granular tracking of individual products and product batches via code serialization is creating the need – and opportunity – for closer engagement between converters and brands.

When offering a variable QR code printing service – producing labels and packaging on a just-in-time basis, featuring variable batch, expiry, or serial numbers – accuracy is key. Converters must ensure that the correct artwork and codes match the brand’s batch and expiry dates – crucial when producing packaging with serialized codes to support traceability.

Delivering the correct labels on the correct day for the correct batch – and with minimal production line downtime – will require close collaboration and data integration between the converter and the brand, with code verification a key element of any successful QR code printing service.

Verification via a vision system can help ensure that all codes produced are readable by retail, supply chain, and consumer scanners, detecting any errors that could render packaging unusable or, if undetected, lead to costly and reputation-damaging recalls.

QR code product authentication

Brands operating in market sectors with stringent product safety demands or those affected by counterfeiting activity, such as luxury goods and electronics, can turn to QR code product authentication to provide traceability, enhance consumer confidence, and protect their brand.

While serialized QR codes are capable of identifying and tracing back counterfeit products, secure QR codes offer enhanced security. Secure QR codes feature patterns or micro-graphics to prevent copying and demand high print quality standards for successful deployment.

Converters looking to expand into these sectors will need to ensure their printing equipment can deliver consistent, reliable results, with some specialist providers of secure, trackable QR codes issuing print process certifications to safeguard the integrity of the secure QR codes they are supplying.

Finally, with new technologies such as NFC or RFID increasingly being deployed alongside 2D codes for traceability and efficiency in supply chain and retail applications, converters may also want to explore smart label services to add further value for brands.

Conclusion

The growing demand for 2D codes presents a significant opportunity for converters to explore value-added services.

For converters already providing packaging design services as part of their sales process, adding a digital communications element to their offering is a small step that could deliver significant benefits in terms of revenue, as well as enhancing their relationship with their brand customers.

Of course, whether or not a converter decides to expand their remit into services supporting the adoption of 2D codes, high-quality print of any packaging codes remains paramount. Well-defined 2D codes, printed and verified by digital printing equipment backed by decades of advanced variable data printing expertise, will make a significant difference to a brand’s – and converter’s – 2D code success.