A new strategy is using quick response codes to help shoppers to make informed choices.
A new use for QR codes has been created by the Advanced Research Corp. (ARC) for the Fish Trax Marketplace that will give consumers the opportunity to learn more about sustainable practices so that they can inform themselves and make the choices that they feel are right.
By using quick response codes, it makes the effort affordable, while being easy for consumers to use.
According to the president of ARC, John Lavrakas, these QR codes were created “to build a community, open up communication and foster sustainable practices.” The idea was designed to be quite simple, as a scan of the barcode using any smartphone or tablet will allow the consumer to trace that seafood backward to its origins, even to the point of learning about the captain of the vessel that caught the fish.
After meeting the captain, a second tab allows the consumer to learn more about the vessel, itself, and then a third allows the mobile device user to discover more about the dealer.
The use of QR codes means that the consumer just needs to scan a barcode instead of typing in a URL.
For all of the fish in this program, dealers enter onto the Fish Trax Marketplace website, information about the fishermen and the vessels with whom the dealers work. Once the information has been entered, it can purchase the fish and record the name of the vessel, the location where it was caught, the captain of the vessel that caught it, the species of the fish, and information about the dealer, itself.
Every time this process is completed, QR codes are generated and they are printed onto menus so that consumers can use their mobile devices to scan. This way, they will know exactly where and how the fish was caught so that they will be capable of making informed choices based on sustainable practices. This also gives fishermen the opportunity to receive public feedback so that they will know what is most important to the people who are actually making the end purchase of the product.
