Uniqode Releases "State of QR Codes 2026" Report Examining QR Code Adoption Among Marketers and Consumer Scanning Behavior

New report highlights emerging trends in how QR Codes are shaping brand-consumer interactions, from adoption and usage to trust, data sharing and measurement

NEW YORK, March 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Uniqode, the highest-ranked QR Code platform on G2, released The State of QR Codes 2026 report today, featuring insights from over 500 marketers and 1,000 US consumers. The second annual report explores how marketers use QR Codes, how consumers engage with them and the benchmarks shaping QR Code adoption across industries.

According to the report, QR Code adoption has reached near-universal levels among consumers and marketers. Seventy-one percent of consumers say QR Codes are useful in their daily lives, and 98% of marketers report a positive impact on their marketing over the past 12 months.

While 56% of marketers expect QR Codes to drive higher revenue, only 12% currently measure their impact on revenue. Instead, teams place greater emphasis on activity metrics such as click-through rates (30%), customer engagement (30%) and conversion rates (22%), confirming the need for QR Codes to serve as gateways for starting and building customer relationships.

"QR Codes are capable of much more than simply linking to a static page," said Sharat Potharaju, Co-Founder and CEO of Uniqode. "More than 90% of marketers recognize their value for capturing first-party data through direct customer interactions, allowing you to learn who your customers are and what they want. That creates a real opportunity to turn scans into long-term customer trust and engagement."

Other key findings from the report include:

• QR Code usage is widespread: Marketers are deploying codes across social media (64%), digital ads (60%), printed materials (50%) and product packaging (42%), with a majority (60%) planning to increase usage further.
• Content-to-context opportunities: Getting more information is the top reason 75% of consumers scan QR Codes, ahead of discounts (52%) and payments (35%). Yet only 36% of marketers use QR Codes to deliver additional information, highlighting an opportunity for brands to better match QR Code content to consumer intent.
• QR Codes as a first-party data channel: Over 80% of consumers are willing to share data, whether with consent (42%) or an opt-out option (41%). QR Codes give marketers a direct way to collect first-party data.
• Analytics value and opportunity: Nearly 45% of marketers rank analytics as the most important QR Code feature and the one that needs the most work. Most teams track clicks and engagement, but only 12% connect scans to revenue.
• Trust is stable and growing: Consumer confidence in QR Code safety is rising, with almost 60% confident that codes are safe to scan. Over 25% of respondents trust codes more than they did last year. The 29% who remain neutral could respond to branded domains, clear CTAs and fast-loading landing pages.

"QR Codes deliver real value when companies move beyond treating them as a simple campaign add-on and start managing them across their full lifecycle," said Justine BaMaung, VP of Marketing at Uniqode. "As consumers increasingly expect QR Codes to deliver useful information in the moment, the companies seeing the strongest ROI create dynamic and branded experiences, scale the management of codes across teams and track scans in ways that connect directly to business outcomes."

For more information on Uniqode's QR Code solutions or to download the full State of QR Codes Report, please visit uniqode.com.

About the Report 
The "State of QR Codes Report" presents a comprehensive analysis of how organizations are leveraging QR Codes to improve customer engagement and create valuable interactions. The report is based on a survey of 524 US-based marketers, 1,000 US consumers and more than 188 million analyzed QR Code scans.

About Uniqode
Uniqode's vision is to enable digital connections with every physical object and place on the planet. Our platform offers a complete QR Code lifecycle management & analytics solution that is used by over 50,000 businesses around the world to build direct relationships, grow lifetime revenue, and acquire first-party data in industries ranging from consumer goods, hospitality, retail, and real estate.

Contact
PANBlast for Uniqode
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317.806.1900

SOURCE Uniqode