The humble QR Code has gone from niche promotional device to reach near-universal levels among both marketers and consumers, with 98% of marketers reporting a positive impact on their campaigns over the past 12 months, while 71% of consumers saying QR Codes are useful in their daily lives.
So says Uniqode’s “State of QR Codes 2026 Report”, which features insights from over 500 marketers and 1,000 consumers. The second annual report explores how marketers use QR Codes, how consumers engage with them and the benchmarks shaping QR Code adoption across industries.
While 56% of marketers expect QR Codes to drive higher revenue, only 12% currently measure their impact on revenue. Instead, teams place greater emphasis on activity metrics such as click-through rates (30%), customer engagement (30%) and conversion rates (22%), confirming the need for QR Codes to serve as gateways for starting and building customer relationships.
Even so, marketers are deploying codes across social media (64%), digital ads (60%), printed materials (50%) and product packaging (42%), with a majority (60%) planning to increase usage further.
For consumers, getting more information is the top reason (75%) they scan QR Codes, ahead of discounts (52%) and payments (35%). Yet only 36% of marketers use QR Codes to deliver additional information, highlighting an opportunity for brands to better match QR Code content to consumer intent.
Meanwhile, over 80% of consumers are willing to share data, whether with consent (42%) or an opt-out option (41%). QR Codes give marketers a direct way to collect first-party data.
Nearly 45% of marketers rank analytics as the most important QR Code feature and the one that needs the most work. Most teams track clicks and engagement, but only 12% connect scans to revenue.
As consumers increasingly expect QR Codes to deliver useful information in the moment, the report highlights that the companies seeing the strongest ROI are creating dynamic and branded experiences, scale the management of codes across teams and track scans in ways that connect directly to business outcomes.
Uniqode co-founder and CEO Sharat Potharaju said: “QR Codes are capable of much more than simply linking to a static page. More than 90% of marketers recognise their value for capturing first-party data through direct customer interactions, allowing you to learn who your customers are and what they want. That creates a real opportunity to turn scans into long-term customer trust and engagement.”
Related stories
UK insight industry ‘generates £18.74bn in added value’
Decision Marketing at 15: Why data now rules the world
Decision Marketing at 15: How data sparked a revolution
PwC: Act now so that data and tech spend gets results
Be the first to comment on "Brands urged to dive deeper as use of QR Codes soars"