With proper garment care, high-quality clothing can last for years or even decades. For fashion brands, sharing garment care instructions with customers is essential, but it can be difficult to communicate detailed information on small clothing tags.
QR Code clothing tags are the perfect solution, allowing you to share care instructions, materials, and customer service information easily. Your customers simply scan the QR Code tag with their smartphone to visit a webpage with all the product information you want to share.
Here’s how QR Code clothing labels are changing the fashion industry and why they’re so effective for getting product details into the hands of your customers.
Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Why use QR Codes for garment care instructions?
Traditional garment care labels can overwhelm customers with too much text or confuse them with complex symbols, increasing the risk of care mistakes that might damage the clothing—and harm your brand’s reputation.
QR Code labels offer a modern, user-friendly alternative. They take up less space, keep the design clean, and allow you to share detailed care instructions on an easy-to-access landing page, creating a more seamless and informative customer experience.
But you can do more than share care instructions through QR Codes. They can also link to pages with information about a product’s supply chain, environmental impact, and authenticity. Designer brands, for instance, might use QR Codes for digital product authentication to discourage counterfeiting.
You can use QR Codes to share exclusive behind-the-scenes videos, lookbooks, and styling tips. They can also link to social media platforms to grow your online following and strengthen brand loyalty.
Benefits of QR Codes for garment care instructions
There are numerous benefits of QR Codes on clothing for fashion brands. Here’s a closer look at why so many brands are turning to digital labels instead of traditional care tags.
Instant access to detailed care guides
Traditional paper or cloth care tags limit the amount of information you can provide. By using a barcode tag, you can link to webpages or QR Code PDFs that offer detailed, easy-to-follow care instructions.
Providing clearer, more detailed instructions helps customers take better care of their clothes so they last longer. It also reduces the chances of mistakes that could damage garments, ensuring your brand is remembered for quality and attention to detail.
With a QR Code guide, you can share step-by-step instructions for washing, drying, and ironing the garment. This is particularly helpful for clothing made with delicate fabrics, which may not be designed for a standard washer and dryer.
You can also provide care guides for garments that require professional care. For example, your landing page could include a list of the product’s materials and why it should be dry cleaned, as well as how to store the product in between professional cleanings.
Supporting sustainability efforts
Sustainability and ethical clothing production matter more than ever to today’s customers, but finding clear information isn’t always easy. In fact, 16% of consumers say they don’t know how to identify sustainable clothing.
By sharing detailed information about materials, sourcing, and production through tools like QR Codes, brands can empower customers to make sustainable choices while building trust. These codes are also an excellent way to highlight sustainability certifications, reinforcing consumer confidence in your products.
QR Codes can go even further by sharing tips for reselling or donating clothing at the end of its lifecycle to reduce waste and support the expanding secondhand market, which has grown by 87% since 2018. Additionally, replacing large care labels with QR Codes saves materials and creates a cleaner approach to garment care.
Connecting to repair services and tutorials
Regular wear and tear is inevitable for well-loved clothing, but QR Codes can help customers extend the life of their garments. By linking to repair resources, brands can make it easy for customers to address common issues.
For example, if you sell a jacket with multiple zippers—you might include a QR Code linking to a tutorial on zipper replacement. The code might also connect customers to a directory of trusted repair services, like tailors or cobblers, ensuring they have the tools and support they need to keep their clothing in great condition.
Recommending complementary products
QR Code tags also provide an opportunity to upsell customers with product recommendations. The key is to promote items relevant to the product they’ve already purchased.
On clothing, you can include a tag with a code that links to garment care products, like a fabric-safe detergent also sold by your brand. You could also take things a step further and link to other clothing pieces or accessories to complete an outfit—like the perfect pair of shoes or a necklace to complement a dress.
Tips for implementing QR Codes for garment care
Follow these tips to ensure a positive customer experience when adding QR Codes to your clothing pieces.
Monitor and update content dynamically
When creating your digital clothing labels, be sure to use Dynamic QR Codes. With Dynamic QR Codes, you can update the target URL at any time, so there’s no need to create a new code or reprint clothing labels every time you want to share new product information.
As your brand grows and changes, you can update your digital clothing labels in real time. You could update new sustainability information as you improve your practices or add new user-generated content for fresh styling inspiration.
Ensure QR Codes are scannable and durable
Before launching your product, perform thorough QR Code tests to ensure the label is scannable. If the QR Code is blurry or sized incorrectly, cameras won’t be able to scan it properly.
Test both iOS and Android devices to make sure the QR Code scans on different operating systems. Additionally, test the tag after several washes to ensure it will still scan even after some wear and tear. Opt for durable printing methods that won’t fade or bleed with time.
Provide multilingual content
If your clothing brand has a global audience, make sure you provide care instructions in multiple languages—not just the language of your country of origin. This makes your garments more accessible and inclusive to a broader audience.
Simplify garment care for modern consumers with QR Codes
Implementing QR Code tags in clothing and accessories streamlines the garment care process, making it easy for customers to find the information they’re looking for. It’s also a great way to share sustainability information or boost customer engagement with exclusive content, fostering brand loyalty and enriching the customer experience.
Bitly makes it easy to make a QR Code for your brand in minutes. Bitly’s Dynamic QR Codes are both customizable and trackable, enabling you to design branded codes that fit seamlessly within your garments and see how customers engage with the linked content.
With Bitly Analytics, you can gain insights like how often your QR Codes are scanned over time, the devices your customers use to engage, referral information, and country- and city-level location data. This arms you with powerful insights that you can incorporate into future campaigns to create more relevant and engaging marketing initiatives that drive business.
Ready to add QR Codes to your garment tags? Sign up for Bitly today to get started.
