A QR code generator is software that makes QR codes and reports on every scan of every code. Business versions also make digital business cards and manage thousands of codes from one account. A QR code, short for quick response code, is a square pattern of black and white squares that a phone camera can read. It usually holds a web address.
There are two kinds of QR code. A static QR code holds the final web address itself. Once it is printed, it cannot be changed, and nobody can count its scans. A dynamic QR code holds a short link that points to the generator's own server. When a phone scans it, the server records the scan and then sends the phone on to the final page. Because the final page is stored on the server, the business can change it at any time, without reprinting the code. Business QR platforms mostly sell dynamic codes.
What does a scan report show? For each scan, the server records the time, the type of phone and the approximate city. It usually finds the city from the phone's internet address, not from its GPS. So it is only roughly right. Some platforms can also ask the person for permission to use the phone's GPS location. The platform adds these up for each code. A business can then compare codes printed in different places.
Take, for example, a housing developer in Pune that is advertising a new project. It makes four dynamic codes: one for 20,000 flyers, one for 30 hoardings, one for a newspaper advertisement and one for the site office. All four open the same project page. After two weeks, the reports show 3,100 scans from the hoardings, 1,400 from the newspaper and 900 from the flyers. They also show that 120 people booked a site visit from the page. So the developer moves its budget from flyers to hoardings. When the price of the flats changes, it updates the page. The 30 hoardings stay as they are.
Digital business cards work the same way. A salesperson shows a QR code on the phone, and the other person scans it to save the contact details.
A QR code on a product pack is a common way of making connected packaging. When every pack carries a different code, the code can trace the pack from the factory to the shop. This is called track and trace. For medicines, it is done by serialisation and track-and-trace systems, under government rules.
The QR code for paying a shop is a different thing. A UPI QR code holds the shop's UPI payment address, not a web address. The customer's UPI app reads it and pays the shop directly. No marketing server is involved.