A packaging revolution is coming… Get in Line!
After 40 years on the shelves, the barcode is about to change, its going invisible.
Not only does that mean a revolution in the retail sales industry and in packaging, but it also will make waves in the print industry, as there are going be new printing and pre-flight considerations. We partnered with the world’s largest barcode scanner manufacturer, initially to help them improve their print, but also to resolve some technical aspects regarding the invisible barcode scanners for industrial processes and store systems.
Things then evolved very quickly. The scanner manufacturer was of course thinking retail sales etc but before we even got started, I could already see where this was going for the printing and packaging industries.
Checkout throughput times at supermarkets are going to be cut by half, as there will no longer be a need to orient packaging to scan. Problems and delays with poorly designed or damaged barcodes will be a thing of the past, and these things alone will mean that waiting at retail checkouts could be a thing of the past, too. The staggeringly high savings to the retail industry will far outweigh the adoption costs. So it has plenty of pull rather than just the usual push.
The new breed of scanners are already in production and will start being installed in the next few months.
Packaging designs will change as there will be more space, and with an invisible digital barcode, digital information such as the ability to download ingredients and nutritional information (for the new EU and world directives) as well as recipes and marketing info, will now run alongside. Barcode substitution fraud will be next to impossible.
Turning digital will also mean that Tracking and Tracing in packaging will become far more effective: state of the art counterfeit controls, monitoring of grey imports, product quality control, recall and shipping logistics and the ability to integrate reward schemes and vouchers directly into packaging. Use by dates can be automatically loaded into customer’s smartphones and even allergy information can be monitored. You will be able to collect a store receipt which could automatically highlight ingredients that could make poor Johnny ill and even transfer these to your smartphone.
It may seem like this is still only relevant to food retail, but cosmetics and pharma will also be heavily involved — and it won’t stop there.
Printers and packagers are going to need to educate themselves about this new technology, which is going to be THE great development for interactive print and packaging.
You can download a presentation here if you would like to read
