Digital supply chain transparency and GS1 Digital Links represent a significant shift for manufacturers.

If you’re not already familiar, traditional 1D barcodes used on retail packaging will be phased out by 2027. They are to be replaced with GS1 Digital Link QR codes. These 2D codes can hold a lot more data, which is great, but also bring rise to several risks for manufacturers.

GS1 Digital Link Advantages for Manufacturers

The roll out of GS1 Digital Links is just around the corner, by adopting Digital Links, you can:

• Control the message and connect directly with your customers

• Create a new source of high intent traffic

• Motivate the purchasing decision

• Enhance product ownership with helpful content

• Gather feedback from customers

• Stay compliant with changing industry regulations

This post highlights the many risks manufacturers may face while implementing GS1 Digital Links. For information on how GS1 Digital Links work and how they differ from QR Codes that point directly to your website, please reference GS1 Digital Link and Resolver Requirements (authenticlabs.com/blog/gs1-digital-link-and-resolver-requirements).

Understanding and Avoiding Risks while Deploying GS1 Digital Links

Before diving into the processes, creation, and deployment of Digital Links for your products, it is crucial to understand what constitutes risk to your brand and company.

To help, here we have categorized them into several areas:

Data Management Risks:

• Maintaining accurate, up-to-date product information across multiple SKUs

• Version control challenges when product specs or ingredients change

• Multiple language requirements for global distribution

• Synchronizing information across different retail partners

Compliance and Legal Risks:

• Different regional requirements for product information

• Liability issues if incorrect information is displayed

• Privacy concerns regarding consumer data collection

• Regulatory changes requiring rapid content updates

Consumer Experience Risks:

• Inconsistent experience across different devices/browsers

• Poor mobile optimization

• Slow loading times affecting user engagement

• Language/accessibility barriers

Technical Infrastructure Risks:

• Website downtime and/or structural changes could make product information inaccessible

• Legacy systems may not integrate smoothly with new digital link requirements

• Load capacity issues if many consumers access links simultaneously

• Need for long-term URL maintenance and redirect management

Channel Conflict Risks:

• Links that resolve to pages where the product can be purchased can create conflict with retail partners

Content Strategy Risks:

• Balancing product-related marketing content with practical information

• Managing content freshness and relevance

• Ensuring consistency across all customer touchpoints

• Meeting diverse user needs (consumers, retailers, regulators)

Understanding these areas should help you to identify potential risk areas within the context of your business and product offerings and to create targeted strategies to mitigate them.

How Real Helps Manufacturers Mitigate Risk

The Real Platform employs numerous functionalities to help manufacturers avoid risk while deploying GS1 Digital Links.

For data management:

• All data is encrypted at rest

• Codes, even data variable codes, are inextricably tied to their content

• Robust API availability to DIM and Dam systems, if required

For Compliance:

• Real can fetch content based on origin of the request

• We do not collect or store PII, such as IP addresses, of the requesting party

For Consumers:

• Experiences are designed for mobile use and employ code readily available in all browsers to render quickly and reliably on user devices.

For Infrastructure:

• Architected for load scaling and/or replicating as required

• Elegant GS1 Resolver management tools

• Robust API

For Channel Conflicts:

• Real is not a sales channel

• Content can be geo-location tailor to meet retail partner requirements

For Content Strategy:

• Real has been designed to influence the purchasing decision, meet requirements, and enhance ownership

• Flexible polls, surveys and additional calls-to-actions that can be created to align with business priorities

Book an online demo to see how Real can help your team transition to GS1 Digital Links, exceed customer expectation while not breaking the bank.

About Authentic Labs

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Authentic Labs created the Real platform to help consumer brands reach their customers at a critical moment, while product is in hand. With its integrated survey, polls and analytics tools, brands can gain valuable insights that otherwise would have required patching together a myriad of disparate systems.

The Real platform leverages QR codes to connect brands to consumers to create better brand experiences and trustworthy relationships. Learn more about Real at https://authenticlabs.com/.