One-Third of Mobile Barcode Scanners Were Aged 45+ in Q3

October 22, 2013

ScanLife-Mobile-Barcode-Scanning-by-Age-Q3-2013-v-2011-Oct2013ScanLife has released its latest quarterly Mobile Barcode Trend Report [download page] in which it reports rising activity now exceeding 181 scans per minute around the world, with 35-44-year-old women the most active scanners. During Q3, 34% of mobile barcode scanners were in the 45-54 (19%) or 55+ (15%) age groups. While that’s not much of a change from Q2 (33%) and Q1 (32%) totals, it marks a much larger change from 2 years ago, when just 19% of scanners fell into those age groups.

The increase in share among older age groups appears to be coming primarily at the expense of the 18-34-year-old demo, which has shrunk from 51% of scanners in Q1 2012 to 35% in Q3 2013. What that means is that there are now about as many scanners aged 45 and up as there are aged 18-34.

One other demographic trend is very slowly emerging this year: an increased proportion of female scanners. During Q1, 35% of scanners were women, a figure which has very gradually increased to 36% in Q2 and 37% in Q3.

Interestingly, Android’s influence appears to be growing in this space. In Q3, 64% of scans came from Android OS devices, up from 60% in Q2 and 57% in Q1.

(More on QR code scanning trends can be found here.)

Other Findings:

  • 23% of barcode users were returning users in Q3, with 35-44-year-old men the most likely to be returning users.
  • The top 5 industries by QR code campaign scanning volume in Q3 were: food and beverage; electronics; retail; media; and wireless.
  • The top 5 QR code campaign content types were: video; product information; application download; CRM; and latest news.
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