The fundamental aim of GS1 Digital Link is to enable anyone to digitally access information about the product in front of them.
This is a significant departure from the traditional practice of relying on a product's packaging to communicate important information to consumers.
The change has been driven by demand. We live in the information age and there's a growing expectation that all facts should be immediately knowable, especially now that almost 96 per cent of UK internet users own a smartphone, allowing them to access the internet anywhere, anytime.
The power of Digital Link
The GS1 Digital Link standard was developed to enable brands, retailers and stakeholders throughout the supply chain and beyond to meet this demand. It extends the power and flexibility of GS1 identifiers such as the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) by making them part of the web.
This means that GS1 standards that are already used by 90 per cent of UK brands and retailers can now act as a gateway to online content that can strengthen brand loyalty, improve supply chain traceability information, include business partner APIs, patient safety information, and much more.
The true power of GS1 Digital Link is its flexibility, enabling connections to all types of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) information. If you’re adding a QR code to a product using the GS1 Digitial Link standard, you’re not only providing a URL for people to scan, you’re also encoding GS1 identifiers – the very same identifiers that are relied upon throughout industry. This allows brand owners to retain full control while linking to any number of information sources from one symbol, saving packaging real estate and improving efficiency.
How does GS1 Digital Link work?
The GS1 Digital Link standard can be used with any type of 2D barcode. In most instances this will be either a data matrix or QR code. The 2D barcode code is embedded with a GS1 Digital Link, a unique sequence of characters that identifies a logical or physical resource used by web technologies – essentially a website URL with a product GTIN added onto the end.
Brands can choose to add additional levels of granularity by including subsequent identifiers within the data string of the URL. This could include a product’s batch and lot numbers, or, for serialised products, an individual item code or serial number.
GS1 Digital Link also allows apps and scanners to connect to specific user experiences by using additional data in a barcode to access specific information.
Resolvers
While Digital Link provides users with answers to their questions by consulting multiple resources, users will often want those resources to be directly relevant to them. What language does the user speak? For which country do they need information? The number of possible links to related information for a single item can quickly multiply. This means GS1 Digital Link needs to have rules in place that guide users to the most relevant content.
To achieve this, Digital Link uses a 'resolver'. Designed as ‘path finders’ rather than sources of information, resolvers redirect a request from one server to another. To put it simply, they can ‘resolve’ GS1 identifiers to one or more sources of information about an identified item.
For example, a resolver could link the GTIN stored within a URI to show traceability, nutritional or sustainability information about a food or drink product. For hardware, it could link to things like instruction manuals or how-to videos. At the same time, the resolver can link an identified item to information for business partners such as recall status APIs, master data, hazardous handling instructions and more.
Links to those information sources can be updated at any time, perhaps pointing to limited-time promotions or important updates. This means your barcode can work harder, acting as a gateway to unlimited resources to support your B2B and B2C goals.