Clothing & Apparel

Digital Product Passports

Incoming EU law around textiles in 2026 will insist that all clothing has full traceability and details around its environment impact.

Equally, younger consumers are starting to care about the ethical of companies, and they want to see that directly reflected in the products they buy.

SmartLinks can help you track this information, and report on it directly to the customer on a per product basis.

The kinds of stories that can be told include:

• The complete materials story from sourcing through to processing and transport, from distance travelled to ethical audits
• The total carbon footprint from manufacture, sales, usage to recycling
• The % of materials and packaging that are both mode up from recycling materials and that can be recycled

Marketing & Engagement

As of today, many manufacturers and retailers use QR codes to simply create engagement with customers. However often these end up with embarrassing dead links or closed competitions.

As well as practical legal information SmartLinks™ can link to all of your current or planned QR code engagements with dynamically updatable data that can connect with:

• Mobile apps
• Competitions and games
• Surveys and feedback
• Social links and websites
• Offers, discounts and loyalty

Digital Wardrobe

Putting SmartLinks™ QR Code, or NFC Tags. in your clothing is not just about showing your eco-credentials, it can be all about connecting you with your customers, by keeping product data even after it's gone from the ecommerce store. From a simple code on Swing Tags or in sewn in labels you could:

• Create your own wardrobe & fashion edit of owned items or wish lists (deep linking to the existing apps)
• Recommend to friends – with rewards
• Find and purchase matching products
• Give size and fit feedback
• Resell on your own or other secondary markets

Labelling & Care Instructions

Clothing Labels are getting more and more complex, both for the sewn tags and the hang tags, often containing:

• Branding details
• Washing symbols
• Written washing instructions in multiple languages
• Material details in multiple languages
• Manufacturing Origin

These sometimes mean that sewn tags extend to multiple tags and are written in harder and harder to read font sizes, all of which frustrates. As a result, users often just cut out tags and losing important information. Additionally hang tags, are getting longer and more complex, with a mess of brand and material marketing information, which is expensive and ultimately just thrown away by the consumer immediately.

SmartLinks is a GS1 approved partner

Digital Links convert traditional barcodes into dynamic QR Codes, called 2d Barcodes, that not only help you meet EU labelling and Digital-Product-Passport legislation, but signpost your consumers to product specific information, updates and offers.

This means valuable GTIN/SKU data can be read directly from the code even without internet access, which can include batch and expiry/BBE information directly in the URL.

Useful for everything from stock and expiry checks, recall information, staff discounts, this can speed up a staff member's job or make it easier for them to help a customer.