Could barcodes tell the customer more about the company?

It’s important to print clear barcode labels for easy purchase and distribution, but these identifiers also have other uses. CBS recently reported on the rise of an app called BuyPartisan that serves as just one example of the innovation companies are still bringing to barcode scanning.

Shoppers that use this app are able to find out more information about the company behind whatever product they’re considering purchasing. Specifically, a scan allows the user to track donations that the company behind a product has made to political parties and funds. While this could seem invasive to producers, it represents the growing concern shoppers have for the origin of their goods, as well as the increasing number of tools that they have to track those origins.

The app, from Spend Consciously, doesn’t just record whether each product came from a left or right-leaning company. It shows the percentage that each company has contributed to different campaigns, allowing users to make their own decisions.

But aside from the political aspect of this app, programs like this incentivize the shopping process by adding a game-like element to scanning. Writing about the app for TIME magazine, Denver Nicks says that using the app is “addictive.” Of Spend Consciously’s plan to release another similar app called EyeSpend, Nicks says it “sounds like a whole lot of trouble for the shopper. But also, if I’m being honest, a whole lot of fun.”

Products with more visible and legible product labels will make scanning easier and promote this new consumer-driven form of shopping. The right print solutions will help you create high-standard barcodes.