{"id":2328,"date":"2023-09-19T10:52:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T08:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geocom.one\/?p=2328"},"modified":"2025-12-09T12:41:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:41:58","slug":"the-barcode-turns-50-years-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geocom.one\/en\/the-barcode-turns-50-years-old\/","title":{"rendered":"The Barcode turns 50 years old"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”6″ top_padding=”5″ bottom_padding=”0″ back_image=”131″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ content_parallax=”0″ uncode_shortcode_id=”560726″][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text text_lead=”yes” text_color=”color-rgdb” uncode_shortcode_id=”105717″ text_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_class=”giustificato”]The barcode turned 50 on April 3, 2023<\/strong>. It was April 3, 1973 when the major U.S. consumer goods companies decided to standardize product identification through the GS1 barcode.
\nGS1 refers to a non-profit global organization that develops and maintains standards for business communication. The most well-known of these standards is the barcode, a graphic symbol printed on products that can be electronically scanned.<\/strong>
\nHistory tells us that the first product with a “GS1 barcode” was scanned at a Marsh supermarket checkout in Troy, Ohio: a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum costing 61 cents. Today, GS1 barcodes are present on over a billion products: in Italy alone, in supermarket, hypermarket and self-service retail chains, about 350 thousand packaged consumer goods with GS1 barcodes are sold every year<\/strong> (not counting variable weight products and non-food). To get a more concrete idea, products pass through checkouts about 30 billion times generating just under 3 billion receipts every year.[\/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text_color=”color-153086″ text_size=”fontsize-215275″ text_weight=”400″ mobile_visibility=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”199884″ text_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_class=”giustificato”]The arrival of the barcode \u2013 as GS1 tells us \u2013 was revolutionary, so much so that the BBC included it among the “50 things that made the economy global”<\/strong>: it changed our shopping habits forever, continues to do so today, connecting a physical product to digital information that travels unimpeded throughout the supply chain[\/vc_custom_heading][vc_custom_heading text_color=”color-153086″ text_size=”custom” text_weight=”400″ desktop_visibility=”yes” medium_visibility=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”193601″ text_color_type=”uncode-palette” heading_custom_size=”25″]The arrival of the barcode \u2013 as GS1 tells us \u2013 was revolutionary, so much so that the BBC included it among the “50 things that made the economy global”<\/strong>: it changed our shopping habits forever, continues to do so today, connecting a physical product to digital information that travels unimpeded throughout the supply chain[\/vc_custom_heading][vc_column_text text_lead=”yes” text_color=”color-rgdb” uncode_shortcode_id=”149965″ text_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_class=”giustificato”]The evolution of the barcode took a major leap forward with the creation of the two-dimensional code that will allow reading a series of multiple information through a web-linked URL. In all sectors, the consumer goods and retail system is on the threshold of the most important transformation since the invention of the barcode. The end of 2027 is the date set by the GS1 board for POS systems installed in stores to be able to read and process both old and new two-dimensional barcodes (QR code or DataMatrix).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The availability of a large amount of information available online and the prevalence of data in developing operational and commercial relationships between businesses have proven to be the driving force behind this revolution: two-dimensional codes can indeed hold a greater amount of data in a smaller space compared to the current linear barcode, such as expiration date, batch or serial number and naturally the GTIN, the product’s unique identifier at the base of the barcode as we know it today. Associating them with a web URL creates a direct link to the producer or retailer’s website that provides access to additional information that is increasingly indispensable today: composition and ingredients, presence of allergens, product origin and processing and production techniques, recipes complete with photos and videos, reviews and ratings from other consumers and much more. The code can be scanned by the consumer also via smartphone (already a common habit). If the same consumer uses a retailer’s app to scan the same barcode, it can be linked to other features, such as ordering products, collecting loyalty points and sharing their experience with friends on social media. 2027 is near and the most equipped global retailers are already implementing product information by updating their fixed and portable scanners to process 2D codes. The improvement work will not stop and the potential of two-dimensional codes will certainly open doors to new and perhaps still unknown business solutions for companies in all sectors.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space empty_h=”4″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”6″ top_padding=”5″ bottom_padding=”0″ back_image=”131″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ content_parallax=”0″ uncode_shortcode_id=”560726″][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text text_lead=”yes” text_color=”color-rgdb” uncode_shortcode_id=”105717″ text_color_type=”uncode-palette” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[383,384],"tags":[386,385],"class_list":["post-2328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-barcode-2","category-labeling","tag-barcode-en","tag-labeling","post_format-post-format-image"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Barcode turns 50 years old - Geocom one<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/geocom.one\/en\/the-barcode-turns-50-years-old\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Barcode turns 50 years old - 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