It's believed the first UPC bar code scan took place on June 26, 1974, in Troy, Ohio, at Marsh Supermarkets on a 10-pack of Wrigley's chewing gum. And while a lot has happened in the retail space in the 50 years since that first scan, retailers say there's a strong need for the next generation of bar codes to help bring retailer data into the 21st century and beyond.
That's where 2D bar codes enter in. These bar codes resemble a QR code and provide the scanner — from consumer to retailer — with an abundant amount of data including product information, inventory management, recipes, traceability and more.
The Sunrise 2027 initiative aims to usher in the use of 2D bar codes by the year 2027 at POS systems. For retailers, this means POS systems should be equipped with scanners that can read both 1D bar codes and 2D bar codes.
And while there's a tremendous push to move toward these information-rich 2D bar codes, the industry isn't closing the door on 1D UPC bar codes anytime soon, says Amber Walls, senior director of global standards for GS1-US. She said it will be a long process for retailers, fresh produce growers and wholesalers to transition everything over to 2D bar codes.
“We don't see 1D bar codes going away anytime soon, because it has to reach pure ubiquity,” Walls said. “It would require every package with one to change out. It will continue to be an option until a lot of things happen — where every printer, every package, everything is to be capable, which will take a long time.”
Potential benefits
IGA CEO John Ross says the potential for 2D bar codes is unlimited, however, the move to 2D bar codes is a long time coming.
“For the last 30 to 40 years, we've been using the exact same technology,” he said. “When the originators of the bar code first launched, we never imagined a world of e-commerce for digital, reverse logistics or all the different ways that data today has become so valuable.”
Data such as where the product was grown, its weight and more is immensely valuable to moving a product from one place to another and selling it. Merchandising data, such as attaching a category to a bunch of products — such as organics, is another plus to 2D bar codes. That's not to mention all the information available to a consumer about a specific produce item in an easy-to-understand format.
“The consumer has this voracious demand for information,” Ross said. “They want to know the source. They want to know the type of packaging. They want to know all the health attributes of that product in more detail than perhaps you can put on the back of the label. They want recipe information. They want instruction on how to actually use this product.”
Walls said 2D bar codes also offer the potential for the retailer and the produce grower and shipper to offer content in multiple languages.
“If I'm shipping a product throughout North America, I can have one label,” she said. “When people scan it, it will take them to their local language version without having to produce three different ones, assuming that there's no other nuance where the market would be a different label. All of that could be done in the back end without changing the label.”
Ross said the marketing opportunities using 2D bar codes are relatively limitless. This includes linking to a retailer's loyalty program, giveaways, additional programs and more.
“All of that becomes really, really easy because the QR code can be a portal to the internet, and the internet can take [the consumer] to retailer and manufacturer websites in a way that is really easy to do today,” he said.
Ross said sometimes overlooked items could potentially benefit from the QR codes in the fresh produce space, such as spaghetti squash. It's been in produce departments for many years, but consumers still might not understand exactly all the uses for it. Unlike consumer packaged goods, there aren't a lot of marketing dollars to promote the squash to consumers. But a 2D bar code can provide a boost.
“Now, all of a sudden, we can interact with that producer in order to create far more interesting and valuable content,” he said. “Now that link can take you to the family farm. It can be the history of their farming. It can be their responsible farming practices.”
Walls said something as simple as couponing a fresh produce item can be accomplished with 2D bar codes.
“Leveraging 2D bar codes with the same type of product identifier you have in a fixed-measure product with things like an embedded price in weight or count, or whatever it might be, unlocks being able to do couponing because you have a consistent identifier,” she said.
Walls said supply chain information to help inventory and freshness management can be automatically captured. Automating information capture is a huge benefit for the entire fresh produce supply chain, she said.
David Delaus, chief information officer for Wegmans Food Markets Inc., said he sees 2D bar codes playing an important role in the future of food safety.
“Traceability is a growing topic, not just for our customers, but in the regulatory landscape as well,” he said. “Five to 10 years from now, we see a lot of opportunity for improved traceability of fresh produce and making it easy for customers to access that information.”
Ross agrees, noting an advantage of 2D bar codes is in the speed of enacting a recall. If there's a foodborne illness, the bar code provides the ability to identify not only where that product is, but also know from which plant it originated.
“It helps us diagnose the source really quick and helps us to remove that at-risk product far quicker, which is a huge consumer benefit," he said.
Ross said one perhaps overlooked use of 2D bar codes involves training produce department staff.
"Training is the antithesis to turnover," he said. “If you want to reduce churn in your workforce, make sure your workforce is better trained."
Ross gives the example of a shopper asking how to cut a starfruit and a produce department employee not knowing the answer. The worker can scan the bar code and learn.
"Think about the ability to take us to an associate to interact with that content and learn that content and get expertise, as opposed to being buried in some training system or buried in a manufacturer's training system," he said. "Now, all of a sudden, we've got some really cool opportunities to bring the total food knowledge of our workforce up."
Implementation
Delaus said Wegmans is updating its hardware and software for scanning and decoding the new bar codes. Upgrades include front-end and POS scanners as well as scanners used throughout the store, such as in receivables and aisles for price lookup and inventory.
“This is a big change for the industry, and it will take time for all of us — growers, suppliers, manufacturers, retailers and so on — to realize the full benefits of 2D bar codes,” he said.
Ross said he expects to see both 2D and 1D bar codes on packaging for a while. For IGA, he said a challenge is the different levels of technology capabilities within its independent retailers, which are as remote as in rural Alaska or a Native American reservation.
“We've got to make sure that we don't leave anyone behind,” he said.
Ross said IGA will debut 2D bar codes on its private-label cereal and will continue to roll out 2D bar codes for all its private-label offerings. He said he's looking forward to partnering with companies to see what's possible within the 2D bar code space.
“We've been saying if there's something you want to try, we want to push the limits of this,” he said. “How can we use data to create more value in food purchases?”
Looking ahead
"In order to take advantage of the opportunity of technology, we're signing ourselves up for more costs," Ross said. "That's probably costs that we should have had all along. We should have been providing more information to help shoppers make better choices in the aisle."
Ross points to how tech-enabled grocery store aisles are, acknowledging that it's mainly designed for logistics and not the shopper.
"We also don't know what the shopper appetite truly is for interacting with the product," he said.
Shoppers want to get in and out of the store quickly, so it's anticipated that retailers will have a bit of a learning curve in understanding exactly what information from 2D bar codes will be most helpful.
"I think we're going to find that there are some real early, fast needs," Ross said. "My guess is the first one is people that are health compromised."
He said it's likely that 2D bar codes will be helpful for shoppers with food sensitivities and allergies; the bar codes will help the shopper better interact with the products sold, whether that's in-store or e-commerce.
"We've got a lot of work to do in the grocery industry, of modernizing the data taxonomy,” he said. "Produce and meat are going to be laggards because they haven't had to do it in a way that some of the CPG companies have."
Advice
For those retailers who haven't worked yet with 2D bar codes, Walls said it's important to get started. That means getting all teams that will be affected by 2D bar codes involved, which could be operations, legal, marketing, IT and others.
"This impacts all parts of the business because you're talking about updating technology," she said.
Walls said retailers she's spoken with say it took six months to understand what equipment on hand would need to be enabled for 2D bar codes.
"There's not necessarily a master list of all that just lying around," she said. "So, there's that assessment piece. There's what do you want to do with [the technology] and to begin making that roadmap of how to get there."
But produce suppliers don't have to change all packaging to 2D bar codes immediately, Walls said. She suggested companies take the approach of adding 2D bar codes as new packaging or products are introduced. She also recommended retailers and produce suppliers look to how 2D bar codes can add efficiency.
"There's quite a few companies that already leverage QR codes on their packages, essentially to make it to where you can get to the end game of more data used for the retail supply chain," she said.
DeLaus agrees, noting Wegmans was an early adopter to pressure-test its 2D capabilities.
"Having a bar code that everyone can read and has everybody speaking the same language is so important," he said. "GS1 is providing solutions that are larger than any one company can be. It's a great example of working together for a common good."