THE GS1 DATABAR HAS become almost ubiquitous on paper coupons, but what about the growing number of digital coupons available online and on mobile phones?
“Digital coupon [bar-coding] standards for the industry are under development,” said Alan Williams, vice president of application development for Ahold USA, Landover, Md., and co-chair of the Joint Industry Coupon Committee.
Meanwhile, whether digital coupons use the traditional UPC-A bar code, the DataBar or something else depends on the manufacturer and its arrangements with the retailer, he said. They determine whether coupons use a “reference number” linked only to the retailer's coupon file (like store coupons, both paper and electronic) or use “self-defining” bar codes “where all the information is present in the bar code to validate the purchase and deliver the coupon-offer value.”