With the upcoming European Digital Product Passport (DPP) requirements hanging over every brand and retailer, unique identification and tagging are becoming a focal point for many apparel brands.
For many, exploring the use of QR codes on branding and packaging is worth investigating. QR codes offer customers quick and convenient access to vital product and sustainability information, but there are significant concerns and complexities to untangle first.
The initial DPP requirements state that the information or link must remain with the garment throughout its lifecycle. Although this may sound easy enough, it opens up conversations involving important questions about customer accessibility at the point of sale, as well as potential impacts on manufacturing processes.
Having spent months working on potential solutions with global customers, we’ve come up with just the thing to address these challenges: the Gemini Tag! This innovative tag is designed to overcome product information tag roadblocks, offering a world of potential for retail brands.
Why QR codes? Keep your options simple
Where customer engagement is concerned, speed, ease of use, and familiarity reign supreme. Enter the humble QR code.
Though QR codes may have dipped in and out of fashion over the past decade, they are currently undergoing an impressive renaissance. It’s this ease of use that is making QR codes so widely accepted as the data carrier of choice for consumer information. They are also easy to generate, meaning that they can be totally unique to each garment – ideal! But where do you put them?
Although placing them on care labels means they stay with the garment, pre-purchase information in-store becomes an issue. On the other hand, putting them on the hangtag may solve the convenience problem, but then they won’t be compliant. The solution? Why not both?
The Gemini Tag: two QR code labels, one garment, a lifetime of information
Introducing the Gemini Tag: two QR code labels, one garment, and a wealth of information for a lifetime. These duplicate QR codes work in tandem, with one sewn into the garment via a pocket tag and the other placed on the hangtag.
Here’s how it works:
- We’ll print two matching QR codes supplied on one label: a fabric care label on one side and a self-adhesive paper label on the other. It’s all done in one place, simultaneously, with minimal fuss.
- As your manufacturers sew the care labels into the garments, they peel off the QR code sticker and apply it to the hangtag. Your garments are double-tagged and ready to rock in less than one minute.
- Your garments arrive in-store, pre-tagged with matching QR codes, one sewn into the garment on a care label and one applied to the hangtag. There is no need to spend extra time and money tagging garments by hand.
QR codes serve as a simple link to whatever information you want to provide. For example, scanning a garment QR code could take customers to a secure Cloud-based platform that stores information on every item you manufacture. You could integrate Digital Product Passport information, supply chain information, and garment provenance—whatever you’d like.
Want extra intelligence? The information you’re linking to can also be stored via an RFID inlay embedded into the pocket tag itself. Neat!
Labels made to fit in with your brand
As an expert in the automated handling of variable data, Checkpoint Systems is the ideal partner to help you connect more with your customers. As brands rightly want to own the online interaction between the consumer and their garment, you will need an expert to help you facilitate this exchange. So, once you’ve decided where your code will link to and where you want it placed, we can incorporate it into your branding and trim items in no time.
We offer a versatile range of options for QR code placement, including hangtags, cardboard hangers, pocket tags, printed fabric labels, and even weaving them into our woven brand labels. With our strategic production facilities worldwide and rigorous global production standards, you can trust consistent performance across our product portfolio, ensuring your QR codes are delivered reliably every time.