Source: Tesco PLC

One of the most revolutionary retailing improvements in decades gets underway in earnest this week when Tesco becomes the first supermarket in the UK to upgrade an entire product range over to a new scanning system.

The retail industry is currently working towards switching from traditional linear barcodes to QR codes which can hold far more information and help cut down on food waste.

And this week Tesco made a significant move by beginning to transition its entire own label core sausage range from the old barcodes to the next generation of QR codes.

The advantages of QR Codes include:

Customer Benefits
QR codes can be used to provide additional product information to customers such as nutritional content and traceability. Shoppers could also be able to access recipes and competitions.

Waste Reduction
Allowing retailers to have better visibility of the distribution of code lives on products in stores.  This will help them to order more accurately and improve the efficiency of stock control routines, both of which will reduce unnecessary waste.

Product Management
In the event of product recalls, QR codes will allow retailers to identify the specific batches impacted rather than removing all items. 

This will avoid throwing products away unnecessarily and improve availability.  Retailers will even be able to block the sale of affected items at the till and contact customers who may have purchased them.

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