A jar of face serum passes through more hands than most people imagine: a product planner, a packaging line, a warehouse, a truck, a distribution centre, a shop, a shopper, and finally someone's bathroom shelf. A connected product is one whose identity travels with it through all of those steps and means the same thing at each one.
The connected product journey
- 1GS1Brand licenses a company prefix and assigns GTINs.
- 2ERPHolds the product master, batches and, often, serial numbers.
- 3Line gatewayEdge software that hands codes to the line and records results.
- 4CoderPrints the code onto the pack or label.
- 5ScannerCamera reads it back and rejects bad prints.
- 6CartonVerified units are packed and linked to a carton code.
- 7PalletCartons are linked to a pallet with its own SSCC.
- 8DistributorReceives and ships by scanning logistic units.
- 9RetailerSells the unit; POS reads the GTIN.
- 10ConsumerScans the same code for information or services.
This guide follows one product along that journey. It is the big-picture view; each section links to the detailed guide for that stage. If you want the basic definition first, start with what connected packaging is.
The journey at a glance
Our example is a fictional skincare brand, Nila Botanicals, launching a 30 ml face serum in shops and online. Its journey has six stages:
- Identity — deciding what the product is and how it will be numbered.
- Factory — printing that identity on each pack and checking it.
- Packing and logistics — grouping units into cartons and pallets, and recording where they go.
- Retail — selling the product at the checkout.
- Consumer scan — a shopper's phone opening the code.
- After the sale — recalls, registrations, loyalty and feedback.
The thread through all six is a single product identity built on GS1 standards.
1. Identity: deciding what the product is
Before any artwork is drawn, Nila Botanicals assigns the serum a GTIN from the company's GS1 licence. The GTIN identifies the product type: every 30 ml jar of this serum shares it, while the 50 ml size gets its own. If GS1 itself is new to you, start with what GS1 is.
The brand then decides how much more detail each jar should carry:
- a batch or lot number, so it can trace and recall a production run;
- an expiry date, so retailers and consumers can see freshness;
- possibly a serial number, so each individual jar is unique.
Serialization is a choice, not a default. It adds cost and complexity on the line, and it is worth it when a brand needs unit-level warranty, one-time loyalty claims or anti-counterfeit monitoring. Nila chooses batch and expiry for every jar, and serials for a premium gift range only. The trade-offs are explained in what product serialization is.
To make the identity readable by phones as well as scanners, Nila expresses it as a GS1 Digital Link: a web address on the brand's own domain that contains the GTIN and, here, the batch. That address is what will go into the QR code.
2. Factory: printing and checking the identity
The GTIN and the QR code's fixed parts can be printed on the carton artwork in advance. The batch, expiry and any serial change during production, so they are printed on the line by a coder — an industrial printer that marks each pack as it passes.
Printing is only half the job. A camera after the coder reads each code to confirm it is present, readable and carries the expected values. Packs that fail are rejected. A printer reporting "printed" is not the same as the code being checked, and a camera read is not the same as formal print-quality verification against ISO grading; mature lines distinguish all three.
At this point, an identity that existed only in software becomes a physical mark on a real object. The line-level detail, including how ERP systems, printers and cameras work together, is covered in the journey of a serialized product through a packaging line.
3. Packing and logistics: units become cartons and pallets
Nobody ships face serum one jar at a time. Jars are packed into shipper cartons, and cartons onto pallets. Each logistic unit gets its own identity, an SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code), printed on its label.
When the brand records which units went into which carton, and which cartons onto which pallet, that is called aggregation. It lets a warehouse scan one pallet label instead of hundreds of jars, while still knowing what is inside. See how individual products become cartons and pallets.
As goods move, companies can record events: these units were commissioned at the factory, packed, shipped, received at a distribution centre. Locations are identified with a GLN. GS1's standard for capturing and sharing these "what, when, where, why and how" records is EPCIS, explained in what EPCIS is. Event data stays with the businesses that record it and is shared with trading partners by agreement; GS1 does not keep a central copy.
4. Retail: the checkout reads the GTIN
On the shop shelf, the serum carries its familiar linear barcode and, increasingly, a 2D code too. The retail industry's Ambition 2027 (often called Sunrise 2027) is a voluntary goal for checkout systems to be able to read GTINs from GS1 2D barcodes as well as linear ones by the end of 2027. It is not a law, and GS1 rules require the linear barcode to stay alongside the 2D code during the transition.
When a 2D-capable POS scanner reads Nila's QR code, it extracts the GTIN directly from the printed address and the till looks up the price in the retailer's own system. It does not go online, and it does not visit the brand's website. If the retailer has set up its systems for it, the scanner can also pass on batch or expiry, which helps with stock rotation. The checkout view is covered in what happens when a product is scanned at the checkout.
5. Consumer scan: the same code, a different job
At home, a customer scans the same QR code with a phone camera. This time the address is opened as a web link. A resolver behind Nila's domain reads the GTIN and batch and sends the phone to the right page: by default, product information with ingredients and usage advice.
The same identity can lead to more than one service. A beauty adviser's app might ask the resolver for the loyalty programme; a customer might open instructions in another language. And because the resolver, not the pack, holds the destinations, Nila can change them at any time without reprinting. The mechanics are in what a GS1 resolver is.
6. After the sale: the relationship continues
The jar stays in use for weeks. During that time the printed identity keeps working:
- Recall or safety notices. If one batch has a problem, scans of that batch alone can lead to a notice, because the batch is in the code.
- Registration and loyalty. For the serialized gift range, each jar can be registered or rewarded once, because each one is unique.
- Feedback and repurchase. A scan can lead to reviews, refills or a reorder page.
- Signals back to the brand. Where and when scans happen can reveal unusual patterns, such as products from one market turning up in another.
Who uses the identity, and for what
| Stage | Who uses it | What they read | What they do with it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | Brand | GTIN, batch, serial plan | Define the product and its digital address |
| Factory | Packaging line | Batch, expiry, serial | Print, check and reject faulty packs |
| Logistics | Warehouses, carriers | SSCC, GTIN, batch | Ship, receive and record events |
| Retail | Checkout, stock systems | GTIN (and optionally batch, expiry) | Sell, price and manage stock |
| Consumer | Shopper's phone | The full Digital Link | Reach product pages and services |
| After sale | Brand, partners | Batch or serial | Recalls, registration, loyalty, insight |
The same identity, read by different systems for different reasons. That is what "connected" means here: not that everything is online, but that every step agrees on what the product is.
Where journeys usually break
In practice, connected-product programmes rarely fail on technology. They fail at the joins between teams:
- Identity decided too late. Marketing designs a QR code before anyone decides whether batch or serial is needed, and the line cannot supply the data.
- Printed but not checked. Unreadable codes reach shelves because nobody reads them back on the line.
- Aggregation skipped. Units are serialized but nobody records which carton they went into, so traceability stops at the factory gate.
- Campaign links instead of identity. The code encodes an agency's campaign address, which stops working when the campaign ends.
- Nobody owns the domain. The domain printed on packs lapses or sits with a former supplier.
Each gap is easier to prevent than to repair, because printed packs cannot be recalled to fix their codes.
Start with the layer you need
Few brands build all six stages at once. A useful way to plan is to think in three layers — identity, traceability and engagement — and add them as business needs justify. A serum brand worried about expiry complaints might start with batch-level identity and consumer pages; a cable maker fighting diversion might start with serialization and aggregation. The layered view is set out in identity, traceability and engagement: the three layers of connected packaging, and if you already run QR campaigns, from marketing QR to connected product infrastructure shows how to evolve them.
Create a GS1 Digital Link for your first product