Home Use Cases
QR Code Use Cases
The same code, four jobs, and a different signal doing the work in each.
Wash House puts one vinyl sticker on every machine door, printed by the machine supplier. Changing it means visiting every site with a heat gun, and the person scanning it is standing in front of the machine holding a bag of wet laundry.
The rule engine
What the scanner gets
External destination
https://apps.apple.com/app/example
This branch leaves for a page somebody else owns, so there is nothing of ours to show.
Straight to the store listing. No splash page asking somebody in a laundrette which phone they are holding.
Desktop is matched positively against known desktop platforms rather than inferred from the absence of a phone, so an unknown agent falls through to the default. Two of these branches leave for an app store, which is somebody else page and is shown as one.
Get this wrong and an Android customer at the machine lands on an App Store page telling them the app is unavailable. The vinyl is already on the door; the rule is the only part still editable.
no subscription · pay per scan · nothing to cancel
One rule is common. Two that talk to each other is not.
Generating a QR code takes seconds and every tool does it. The decisions that cost money come afterwards, and the one that decides whether a product can grow with you is whether its rules combine at all.
- What the code should point at when the campaign behind it ends.
- Whether the destination should differ by market, and how far that difference goes.
- Whether anyone will ever know if the print run worked.
- Whether market and language can be answered by the same code, or only one of them.
Pick the signal, not the industry
Every page below is really a choice of which signal the redirect reads.
A border, for packaging and ecommerce
Country routing sends each market to its own storefront, support page or regulatory text, from one artwork.
geoA clock, for hospitality
Schedule windows change the destination by time of day and day of week, in your timezone or the scanner own.
scheduleA campaign tag, for anything measured
The source condition reads utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign or the referring host, and selects a destination from it.
source
Where these codes end up
- On packaging
Long shelf life, many markets, and a GS1 Digital Link when the code has to carry a GTIN as well.
- On tables and menus
Lunch and dinner from one printed table tent, with the code never pointing at a service that is closed.
- In parcels and on inserts
Post-purchase flows and reorder links, split-tested and re-tagged without reprinting the insert.
- On signage that outlives its subject
Temporary print has the worst ratio of lead time to useful life of anything you can put a code on.
- Composed, when it earns it
Country then language is the common pair. Each condition is its own rule at 5 credits per change, and they chain.
- Measured the same way everywhere
Country, city, device, OS, referrer and scanner-local hour, first-party and without a cookie.
What it costs
Prepaid credits, no subscription. 1 credit to create a code, once, and 1 credit per scan. Credits stay valid for 18 months.
- Starter $15 3,900 scans
- Basic $39 15,600 scans
- Pro $79 36,400 scans
- Growth $149 100,000 scans
- Scale $299 325,000 scans
- Volume $799 1,300,000 scans
Questions
Which routing condition should I start with?
Start with none. Print a dynamic code pointing at one destination, and add a condition when a real difference appears between two groups of scanners. Routing added before that difference exists is complexity you then have to maintain.
Can one code use several conditions at once?
Yes, and this is worth checking when you compare products. Conditions compose as a graph here, and country then language is the most common pair. Each condition is its own rule at 5 credits, every change · add, edit or remove · a save that changes nothing is free.
Do I need a different code for each market?
No, and avoiding that is usually the point. One printed artwork with a country rule replaces a separate print run per market.
What does this cost for a typical print run?
Creating the code is 1 credit, once. Each scan is 1 credit. A custom routing rule is 5 credits, every change · add, edit or remove · a save that changes nothing is free. There is no monthly fee and no cap on how many codes you keep.
Is a dynamic code always the right answer?
No. If the content is stable and the print is cheap to replace, a static code is correct and free. The dynamic code earns its cost when the artwork will outlive the destination.