Product First Connections: A Guide to QR, NFC, RFID, and IoT

Many people ask us why having a Product First architecture matters, and the truth is that there are many reasons. This article explores one of them - how a connected product’s Complete Product Identity is physically linked to the real world - through, what we term, Connections.

We all understand that we can (and should) use different means of getting from A to B depending on where A and B is, and what is easiest, cheapest, most efficient or most environmentally friendly. Most people don’t ever consider driving through central London to be a wonderful idea, so they catch a train, ride a bike or get on the tube. Equally, if you need to get somewhere (most places) that isn’t well served by public transport, you probably need to get in your car. Choosing the right method of transport is important. Making the wrong decision can cost you time and money, as well as making you completely miserable.

Similar logic can be applied to how you choose to connect your physical product with the real world. QR codes will be right for some. NFC for others. Both of these might make more sense when used in combination with another mechanism such as UHF RFID or some form of IOT sensor when you want or need to understand things deeper in the supply chain.

The important thing is to take a view, based on evidence and with an open mind, as to what is the best option to take. Let’s take a look at the main options that we would normally consider when it comes to connected products and/or packaging:

1. QR codes - the now ubiquitous mechanism to avoid making mistakes whilst typing in a very long link in the post-Covid world, QR codes are everywhere. They have a significant advantage in that most smartphones will read them natively without the need for any extra software and are cheap and easy to both create and deploy. However, not all QR codes are equal. Here are some things to look out for:

   1. Static QR codes - static codes contain a link that goes directly to that address, with no redirect. This is great - so long won’t ever need to change that address for any reason (and is therefore, not recommended).

   2. Dynamic QR codes - Dynamic QR codes use a dummy link within the code that is redirected to another website using something called a resolver. The main advantage here is that your QR code does not need to stay pointed to one place forever - you can send it to different experiences. For example, you may want to point it to one location when you have a promotion running and another location when you don’t. However - don’t get caught in the trap of using online QR generators that aren’t sat within your tech ecosystem - you can lose control of the codes and the links.

   3. GS1 QR codes - A special case of dynamic QR codes which over the next few years are set to become the standard barcode featured on the products you buy in the shop, replacing the stripey codes used today. These codes use a standard format to manage a number of different pieces of data, including best before date, batch and serial number

2. NFC - NFC (Near Field Communication) is a type of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) which is becoming more and more popular thanks to “tap to pay” applications which use the same technology. It has some drawbacks, in that most phones need an app of some description to be able to use it. We all have enough apps in our life already - so it's best used in situations where added security might be required or within an existing app that is already well used. There are many different types of NFC tags available, suitable for different types of products and applications.

3. Other forms of RFID (Low Frequency - LF, High Frequency - HF & Mifare, Ultra High Frequency - UHF) - Generally used for supply chain applications and not designed for consumer use, the primary function of these forms of RFID is to understand the status of goods within the supply chain. From LF RFID tags on cattle through to active UHF RFID tags used on shipping containers, RFID in all its forms can help to provide information throughout the product lifecycle

4. IoT  Connections (GPS, Temperature, Humidity etc) - IoT connections enhance traceability and enable you and the consumer to understand many different types of information about your goods as they move through the supply chain. Providing assurance that goods have stored and transported correctly, they can help to ensure confidence in a product and its journey

5. Other types of barcode - Many other types of barcode can provide a connection, however none have the usability that QR codes do. Recently, Google Lens has added support to deliver patient information leaflets for medication using the Datamatrix codes currently contained on medicines. Whilst helpful to use an existing code already on pack, until smartphones support decoding them natively then this creates an extra (some might say needless) barrier to accessing that information when the same can be delivered via a QR code, which is likely to also be on the pack for retail purposes in the coming years. However, traditional 1D and 2D barcodes still serve a significant purpose throughout the product lifecycle and will remain an important connection type for many years to come. 

6. Accessible Connections - Accessible connections are becoming increasingly important to enable people with disabilities to wayfind and obtain accessible product information. Enabling everyone to gain the benefits of connected products using solutions such as Navilens is not only the right thing to do, but important to ensure compliance with existing and upcoming regulations.

As a manufacturer, the simple fact is that from your perspective, and from your customers’, none of this is actually very important. What is important is what these things do for your products. Remember them? The things that you make, that your business revolves around and that your customers buy when you’re not too busy having yet another tech solution sold “at” you by someone who is more focused on their product than yours. 

So, which should you use? The short answer, as with “getting about”, is that it depends but whichever one of them it is, remember that it is nothing more than a facilitator to help you to sell your product and, outside of any hardware element, there is nothing particularly special about any of them. The truth is that one product requires many different types of connections throughout its journey and to give it a Complete Product Identity, information needs to be gathered from every single one of them.

For this reason, a solution built around QR codes, or NFC, or even a combination of these things isn’t enough. For every other connection type, you need another solution - including for any new connection types that might come to the fore in the future. QR codes are not valuable in themselves and models that charge per code, per link, per redirect or per interaction are (or at least should be) a thing of the past.

For any solution to do this properly, it needs to be able to work with all types of connection  and be built around the product you make, not the code it generates - it must be Product First, and it must be connection agnostic.

Our Product Technology Suite (PTS)  has been designed to be just that. Whatever connections you need to use, now and into the future, the nature of having a Product First architecture means that we can and will support it and that the connection itself is a facilitator, not a means of making money. It's not about the QR code, it's not about the RFID tag or anything else - it's about your product. That thing that you make. That thing that you care about. The centre of your world - and of ours.