Are QR Codes Dead? Everything You Need To Know About QR Codes in 2024

In 2020, QR Codes quickly emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic as an ideal social distancing solution. With these customizable barcodes, businesses could share menus and other important information with their customers on their mobile devices, reducing the need for contact with staff.

Although the pandemic has subsided and social distancing requirements are no longer in effect, QR Codes are still going strong. In fact, businesses have found increasingly creative ways to incorporate QR Codes into their products and services, creating a bridge between the physical and digital worlds. QR Codes are alive and well in 2024—here’s why this technology isn’t going anywhere.

*Note: All brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.

Are QR Codes still relevant?

To understand the enduring relevance of QR Codes, it helps to learn about how QR Codes work and their history. QR Codes were originally invented in Japan in 1994 as an inventory tracking and management solution. Two decades later, many businesses started using QR Codes in consumer-facing settings as smartphone cameras improved and became better at scanning QR Codes.

Now, businesses are using QR Codes for everything from marketing campaigns to digital payment processing to smart product packaging. Although social distancing is no longer necessary, QR Codes remain a popular solution for contactless ordering at restaurants. 

Many artists and creatives have also started using QR Codes to create immersive museum experiences, augmenting their physical displays with digital content. The number of users scanning QR Codes annually is projected to reach 99.5 million in 2025, up from 83.4 million in 2022.

Today’s Dynamic QR Codes are customizable and work well for sharing many different types of digital media, including URLs, app downloads, and social media content. They are accessible on many different types of devices, including both Apple and Android phones, and are easy to scan with a smartphone camera or free barcode scanner app. As new types of digital content emerge in the future, we’ll likely see even more use cases for QR Codes across a wide range of industries.

Why QR Codes are popular

The unique functionality of QR Codes has made them popular among business owners, marketers, and consumers alike. Here’s what makes QR Codes such an effective solution for sharing digital content.

Collect data to improve future marketing campaigns

By using Dynamic QR Codes in your marketing strategy, you can easily track the performance of your campaigns. QR Code Generator PRO offers unique QR Code tracking software, which lets you track a variety of metrics to help you understand who is interacting with your marketing materials.

With this tool, you can view the location of your QR Code scans by city and country, the number of unique and total scans, and the operating device used. With this data, you can identify which marketing materials are most effective at generating engagement and use this information to fine-tune your future campaigns.

Conveniently direct users to mobile

Smartphones and other mobile devices have become the preferred way for many consumers to access the internet. In fact, 15% of U.S. web users are now smartphone-only, meaning they do not access the internet using a traditional computer. By placing QR Codes on your print marketing materials, you can cater to these consumer preferences and share impactful mobile content.

Many brands now include QR Codes in their magazine ads and billboards, directing viewers to a website where they can learn more about the product or make a purchase. QR Codes have also become a popular addition to product packaging. Instead of printing lengthy descriptions or disclaimers directly on the packaging, brands can use a QR Code that leads to a digital product page. This saves space and enables brands to create more aesthetically pleasing packaging designs.

Encourage engagement by customizing designs

Modern QR Codes are fully customizable, so you can create a design that reflects your brand’s unique identity. They can include brand colors, custom frames, and editable CTA buttons, and you can even place your brand’s logo in the middle. With QR Code Generator PRO, you can download your QR Code in five image file formats: PNG, JPG, PDF, SVG, and EPS (note that EPS only works for black and white, non-customized codes). Scale up their size as large as you need, or maintain the minimum size of 2 x 2 centimeters (0.8 x 0.8 inches). Brands can also create custom landing pages for each QR Code for a seamless customer experience.

With a custom design, you can create an eye-catching QR Code that reflects your brand messaging and entices your audience to scan. Real estate professionals could add a border to the QR Code in the shape of a house to link to virtual house tours or event pages for upcoming open houses. There are so many ways to get creative and make your QR Codes pop.

Extend asset life with post-publish editing capabilities

Another major benefit of Dynamic QR Codes is that they are easy to edit after they’ve been published. This means you can change the URL on your QR Code after it’s been published, allowing you to reuse your QR Codes for future campaigns.

Say you’re using a QR Code to promote a giveaway for your brand. After the giveaway ends, you can edit the QR Code so it links to a landing page explaining that the giveaway has ended and redirecting the viewer to another promotion. This ensures that you don’t miss out on any valuable incoming web traffic, even after the giveaway has ended.

5 examples that prove QR Codes are the future

Curious about how real companies are using QR Codes in their operations? Here are a few innovative uses of QR Codes we’d like to highlight.

1. Encouraging sustainable fashion practices with smart tags

Sustainability is a major challenge for brands in the fashion industry. One way that these brands can reduce their impact on the planet is by encouraging customers to recycle their packaging and even recycle the clothes themselves after they’re done wearing each piece.

Many fashion brands are now adding QR Codes to their clothing tags to spread the word about recycling and other important sustainability practices. Fashion tech company SIXR works with garment manufacturers and small businesses to add QR Codes to clothing tags. This new technology tracks the lifecycle of each piece and incentivizes the wearer to return their clothing to SIXR rather than throwing it away.

Evrnu is another brand using QR Codes on sustainable fashion. Each of its pieces features a QR Code printed directly on the tag with detailed recycling instructions as well as more information about how the piece was constructed. This gives consumers more transparency and agency about how they interact with the clothes they purchase.

2. Letting artistic creativity soar with imaginative QR Codes

QR Codes are more than just a marketing tool—they’re also a way to augment your creative expression. In recent years, we’ve seen the use of QR Codes in museums and art galleries to share digital companion content for exhibits. This creates a more immersive experience for viewers and provides valuable context for each piece of art.

One excellent example is startup Meow Wolf, which has created immersive art and entertainment experiences in major cities throughout the United States. There are QR Codes placed strategically throughout the exhibits, which lead to web pages that share the backstory behind the displays, adding an extra level of detail to an already-engaging experience.

Coca-Cola is another major brand that has used QR Codes in collaboration with artists. In a campaign for Coke Studio music, the soft drink company used AI-powered digital art to create QR Codes that are fully functional and visually stunning.

3. Breathing new life into old-school marketing tactics

QR Codes are an easy way to connect offline marketing tactics, like billboards and direct mail, to your online marketing tactics, like social media and content marketing assets. These old-school marketing tactics are still very effective: One study found that physical direct mail had an ROI of 112%, beating out both SMS and email messages. However, using QR Codes can help you modernize these strategies and bring them into the 21st century.

You can use QR Codes for direct mail to send mail recipients directly to your website. Ideally, the QR Code should link to a landing page that relates directly to the CTA on your mailer, whether that’s a product page, a signup form, or something else. This makes it easy for your recipients to take action right away.

4. Supporting students with engaging learning environments

Many of today’s educators are using QR Codes for student engagement in the classroom. At the primary and secondary level, teachers can incorporate QR Codes in fun classroom activities, such as scavenger hunts. In a QR Code scavenger hunt, students search for hidden QR Codes throughout the classroom that link to relevant educational materials. Teachers can also include QR Codes on written materials that they send home with students, linking to forms where parents can sign up to volunteer, make donations, or keep up with their child’s curriculum.

There are also plenty of use cases for QR Codes in higher education. Professors can display QR Codes in their classrooms linking to helpful online resources like audiobooks, podcasts, video lectures, and more. Colleges and universities can also display QR Codes throughout campus linking to important announcements and scheduling updates.

5. Immersing travelers in vacation destinations

QR Codes have also become an important part of the travel process in destinations around the world. Hotels, airlines, and tourist attractions can use QR Codes for travel to streamline the check-in process. Rather than checking in with a staff member, visitors could scan a posted QR Code to check in on their own and speed up the process.

Many cities are also using QR Codes to share information with tourists in high-traffic areas. Rio de Janeiro installed stunning mosaic QR Codes that link to pages with information about the history and culture of each neighborhood.

Some cities are also using QR Codes to improve accessibility for visitors. As the 2024 Paris Olympics approaches, the city is using a QR Code “Games Pass” to manage access to restricted zones. Singapore has also implemented QR Codes at certain entry points on its border with Malaysia, which speeds up entry times significantly.

Learn how to unlock the power of QR Codes for yourself

With incredible multifunctionality and versatility, QR Code technology is here to stay. All you need to harness the power of QR Codes for your business is a little imagination and a QR Code tool you can trust. That’s where QR Code Generator PRO comes in. QR Code Generator PRO makes it easy to create your own custom Dynamic QR Codes and link to a wide variety of digital assets. 

Sign up today to start creating your own QR Codes for free!