QR Codes on Packaging
Eighteen months of stock, and one decision you cannot take back.
Quinta do Vale prints one back label for the whole run. Bottles sold into the EU need the e-label with ingredients, nutrition and the health warning. The same bottle sold elsewhere does not, and the estate would rather those visitors landed somewhere useful.
The rule engine
What the scanner gets
Inside the EU, so the code opens the e-label: ingredients, nutrition per 100ml, and the health warning the regulation requires on the label or behind it.
Country is resolved by the edge network from the connecting address on the scan itself. It is not asked for, not stored against a person, and never a cookie. Groups are matched in order, so an ungrouped country is predictable rather than approximated.
Get this wrong and a bottle on a shelf in Lyon carries no e-label. The back label is already printed; the rule is the only part still editable.
no subscription · pay per scan · nothing to cancel
Whose address is printed on your carton?
Everything else about a code on a pack is reversible with an edit. The hostname is not: it is in the ink, it is on every unit, and it belongs to whoever owns that domain. In this category at least one vendor cannot remove its own domain from inside the symbol, and its terms reserve the right to redirect codes it stops hosting.
- A vendor domain permanently visible on your packaging, unremovable from the symbol.
- Terms that reserve the right to point your printed codes at the vendor homepage.
- The promotion on the label ended, and there are eighteen months of stock in the channel.
- One SKU ships to six countries whose regulators want different information.
What goes on the box, and who owns it
Put a hostname you control in the symbol
Point a subdomain you already own at us with one CNAME and we run the SSL and routing at no charge. The printed string then names your company, not ours.
qr.yourbrand.com CNAME → taprouteOr carry the identifier itself
If the code must identify the product to a scanner as well as a shopper, a GS1 Digital Link puts the GTIN in the path where both can read it.
https://tap01.link/01/09506000134352Route the markets from one artwork
A country rule sends each market to its own page. The printed code is identical everywhere the box ships.
What survives the print run
- The hostname is yours
A one-time domain slot at 40,000 credits, once, included from the Growth pack up. We never supply the domain and we never rent it back to you.
- A destination that outlives the campaign
Repoint the code when the promotion ends and every box already in the channel follows, at no cost.
- One artwork, many markets
geoCountry grouping means a trade bloc is one rule rather than one print run.
- GS1 when it is a product code
Conformant to the GS1-Conformant Resolver Standard and verified with GS1 official test suite. 16 primary keys are understood.
- Serialised runs stay cheap
The GS1 product master is 200 credits once per SKU, and your first one is granted, once per workspace. Each serial after that is 1 credit.
- No plan to lapse mid-shelf-life
Prepaid credits valid 18 months, and a code still being scanned keeps the account alive whether or not you sign in.
Real previews
What a code on the pack opens
Regulated product pages, rendered at the edge from the identifier printed on the box.
These are not screenshots. Each frame is the page itself, rendered by the same code that answers a scan.
Questions
Whose domain ends up printed on my packaging?
Yours, if you bring one. Point a subdomain you already own at us with a single CNAME and the printed string names your company. If you use our shared host instead, the printed string names ours, and that is a real dependency worth understanding before a long print run.
How long does a code printed on packaging keep working?
For as long as the account is alive, and a code that is still being scanned keeps it alive whether or not you ever sign in. If the balance empties there is a 14 day grace period, then the code pauses and serves a branded page. It is never deleted and the address is never reassigned.
Should packaging carry a GS1 Digital Link or a plain short URL?
A plain short URL is right when the code is only for the shopper. A Digital Link is right when the same code has to identify the product to a scanner, because the GTIN travels in the URL path where both a phone and a retail system can read it.
What does a serialised print run cost?
The GS1 product master is 200 credits, once per SKU, and your first one is granted, once per workspace. Each serialised code after that is 1 credit, and each scan is 1 credit. There is no cap on how many serials a SKU may have.
Can I get a print-ready vector file?
Not today. Codes export as SVG and raster, and a PDF or EPS export is a genuine gap against most of this category. If your printer requires one of those formats, check that before committing to a workflow.