A brand can sell a hundred thousand bottles of shampoo in a year and know almost nothing about who bought them. The retailer took the payment, the marketplace holds the delivery address, and the brand sees only a sales report. The pack, though, goes home with the buyer. That is the opening connected packaging offers: a way to begin a direct relationship after the sale, on terms the buyer agrees to.
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.
Who owns the customer today
In most consumer goods, the brand sells through someone else.
- Physical retailers record the sale against the GTIN in their own systems, and may link it to a shopper through their own loyalty schemes. That data belongs to the retailer. The checkout process is described in what happens when a product is scanned at the checkout.
- Marketplaces hold the order, the payment and the delivery address. Brands selling there work within the marketplace's rules about contacting buyers. See how product identity works on marketplaces like Amazon.
- Distributors and wholesalers may sit between the brand and the retailer, adding another layer.
None of this is wrong. It does mean that questions such as "who uses our product?", "did the instructions make sense?" or "would they buy again?" are hard for the brand to answer.
The pack is the brand's own channel
Advertising reaches people before they buy. The pack reaches them after. It sits in the kitchen, the bathroom or the workshop, often for weeks. Put a QR code on it and the buyer has a way to reach the brand whenever they choose.
If that code carries a GS1 Digital Link, it can do this without getting in the way of retail. A checkout with an upgraded 2D scanner can read the GTIN from the same code, offline, while a phone opens the web address. How one code serves both is explained in why the same GS1 2D code can work for checkout and consumers.
From a scan to a relationship
A scan is not yet a relationship. On its own, it tells the brand which product was scanned, when, with what kind of device and roughly where — not who. The details of what a scan records, and the privacy limits around it, are in what happens when a consumer scans a connected product.
A relationship starts when the buyer chooses to share something. That choice depends on a fair value exchange: the buyer gives a little information or attention, and gets something worthwhile in return.
| What the buyer gets | What the brand can learn (with consent) |
|---|---|
| Usage instructions, recipes, safety information | Which products need better explanation |
| Warranty registration or extended cover | Who owns the product, and when it was bought |
| Loyalty points or rewards | Repeat purchase patterns |
| Recall and safety alerts for their product | A reliable way to reach affected owners |
| Refill or replacement reminders | Product life and replenishment timing |
| A channel for feedback or complaints | Problems, before they become reviews |
The left column has to be genuinely useful. A code that leads to a generic home page, or demands an email address before showing anything, teaches people not to scan again.
Consent is the foundation
A first-party relationship is only valuable if it is trustworthy. Good practice for connected packaging is the same as for any direct channel:
- Give before you ask. Basic product information should be available without signing up.
- Ask clearly, once, for a stated purpose. "Register for warranty reminders" is clearer than a pre-ticked marketing box.
- Keep the scan and the person separate until the person chooses to link them.
- Make leaving easy. Unsubscribing and deleting data should be simple.
- Follow the data-protection rules in each market where you sell.
Make the identity outlast the campaign
Packaging is printed months before it is scanned, and it may be in homes for years. Campaigns last weeks. If the code on the pack points straight at a campaign page, the relationship ends when the campaign does.
A better pattern is to print a stable product identity and decide what it leads to separately. With a GS1 Digital Link, the address on the pack encodes the GTIN and, if you choose, the batch or serial number. A resolver then decides where to send each scan, and that decision can change at any time without reprinting. GS1's vocabulary even includes link types for this kind of service, such as gs1:registerProduct and gs1:loyaltyProgram.
A worked example
Volta Cables, a fictional maker of electrical cable, sells reels through hardware stores and a marketplace. It knows its distributors, but not the electricians and homeowners who use the cable.
- Volta adds a QR code carrying a serialized GS1 Digital Link to each reel's label, alongside the existing barcode.
- Scanning shows installation guidance and current-rating tables, with no sign-up needed.
- An optional button offers electricians a points programme: register, and each reel scanned earns points.
- Over time, Volta learns which regions its registered electricians work in and which reel sizes they buy most — data they agreed to share.
- When Volta later changes its loyalty provider, the codes on reels already installed keep working, because only the resolver's destination changes.
How product identity can support schemes like step 3 is explored in how product identity can support loyalty and rewards.
Create a GS1 Digital Link for one of your products