How do you envision QR codes and cover images enhancing the Zazzle shopping experience in the future?
I've never thought about them in conjunction with covers but ever since struggling with what text templates to include on the back of a luggage tag I made recently, I've been thinking about them a great deal. With the luggage tag, having one's name, address & phone on them seems pretty standard. But that means anyone can see your name & contact info. So I was thinking, how do we put necessary info we'd like to keep private on public things? And from Googling around I think the answer is QR codes. They can do sooo much more than just be a link to a URL. The two things that stood out most to me in terms of how they'd be useful with POD were
1) They can store a vCard so when someone scans it from their phone, all your contact info is added to their address book. Imagine you're a hairdresser or dentist or landscaper so have clients who routinely need to contact you. Just by scanning your QR code your name, number, address, photo, website - whatever info you add to your vCard, can all be saved as a new contact in their phone without them manually having to add anything. The potential here is huge, businesses could put these on so many things instead of handing out business cards. (Or they could use them on physical business cards that the recipient could scan and then just throw out.)
2) They can store formatted text. Which brings me back to those luggage tags but also pet ID tags and med alert bracelets ... Things were your personal info is necessary but you don't want everyone and anyone to be able to see it with a glance. They'd need to purposefully scan it to see the info it reveals. And for something small like a pet ID tag, a QR code doesn't need near as much space as all the text would.
The problem with this is that it requires a third party to generate the QR codes and the ones I've found offer either/or free trials, free plans, and paid plans. The free ones usually expire (stop working) after either a certain amount of time or a certain amount of scans. I experimented with these two - me-qr and bitly. I did a vCard and a text one and both worked flawlessly using my phone. But they both expired after 14 days so I can't share one.
So what I have been thinking is that sites like these are selling their QR code service but nothing to put it on, and here's Zazzle with all the things people would want to put it on! What if they got in bed together in a mutually beneficial arrangement? Like, click here to design your QR code, then step 2, click here to chose a customized product to print it on ... And vice versa, click here to customize your product, then step 2, click here to customize the QR code to include on it... Combining both company's services/products into one interactive option for the end-user would be a boon for everyone. Zazzle expanding their QR code technology on their own would likely be less complicated and either way it's a real stretch, I know, but I think there's real potential in QR codes and would love to see a way to add one to a Zazzle product that does more than just link to a website.
A page full of QR codes would be a visual disaster on a website... any website for customers to be presented with
I don't understand the idea of using a QR code on a webpage period. If you're already on the web, you're already there. Why bother with a QR code instead of a text or image link? And if you're viewing the page on your phone, how are you going to scan the code? I just don't get the sense in it. QR codes are for taking one from the physical world into the digital without having to type a long URL (or other) into your phone to get there. They go on printed products to take mobile users directly to whatever info you want them to see without them having to remember or type anything.
A follow up to my previous comment:
I noticed today on the bitly site I linked to above, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page under resources there's a link for their "QR Code Printing Shop". That takes you to their Vistaprint Pro Shop where you can pick a product to design & order. But there's no integration with the QR code you presumably just created and now want to print on something. So I don't get it. This is where an integration with a POD, like ya' know, Zazzle, would come in. 😉 Create your QR code, click to shop products to print it on, and your QR code automatically comes with you for pasting into whatever product you select.
